


Gifted: Days of Wrath

by Dreamshaper



Series: Gifted [4]
Category: Ghostbusters (2016)
Genre: F/F, I can't help myself, Some Fluff, Some angst, Some fight scenes, and Holtzerine, even more GB meets X-Men
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-13
Updated: 2018-06-26
Packaged: 2019-05-06 05:02:00
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 19
Words: 32,016
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14634654
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dreamshaper/pseuds/Dreamshaper
Summary: An unexpected late night visitor brings trouble to the firehouse, but none of the Ghostbusters have an idea how much trouble exactly awaits them. A new military project and hidden agendas will put all four of them in grave danger.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Time for more Holtzerine, ha XD I hope you guys will enjoy this :D  
> Special thanks to aloc who helped when I got stuck and listened to my whining and is generally awesome :D

She ran.

She was fast, she had been trained to be fast, how to breathe, how to move so she could run for hours if she had to; her body helped, how it worked and how it simply _was_ , but her training helped, too, and nobody could stop her.

They tried anyway, and they paid.

She left them behind quiet and still, most of them not even having a chance to scream; and she ran, not slowing down, not even when they tried to stop her.

She ran, until she was outside, and then she kept running, at the same time not knowing where she could go and knowing where she should go, a strange duality which made her brain ache.

She ran, drawn as if by an invisible rope, and she knew that soon, she would find her place.

* * *

“It was a dark and stormy night”, Holtzmann intoned dramatically as she came sliding down the fireman’s pole, pausing as she took in the firehouse’s ground floor before she continued, “and Erin and Holtzmann were all on their own in the big, spooky firehouse. Where’d Abby and Patty go?”

“Home”, Erin gave back, sounding amused, lowering the scientific journal she had been reading, “as they told you an hour ago.”

“Oh”, Holtzmann let out, making Erin giggle with the sheepish look she now had on her face, “I must not have heard them. I was busy.”

“Obviously”, the physicist said, putting the journal onto her desk, “but you fixed your gloves?”

“Of course”, Holtzmann smirked, moving to Erin’s desk and sitting on it, earning a raised eyebrow as she planted her butt right on one of Erin’s notebooks, “all working again, I tested them before I came down here.”

In response, Erin reached out and took tender hold of one her hands, running her thumb over the skin between Holtzmann’s knuckles; she felt the engineer shudder, and squeezed her hand before she let go again and smiled at her, coming to her feet as she asked if Holtz was ready to go home.

“Yup”, Holtzmann gave back, getting up from her seat on the physicist’s desk, “shall we grab some dinner on the way?”

“Sure”, Erin nodded, and just then, someone hammered against the firehouse’s door, both of them pausing before they exchanged a look, not having expected a visitor or a client at this hour – ghosts were busy at all hours of day and night, but for some reason, their clients usually called during regular business hours, hardly ever used their phone number at night and so far, never had shown up at this hour without invitation.

Holtzmann was the first to get moving, figuring that, if it was someone who would mean them harm, it’d be better if they’d get at her first, with how fast her body could deal with any sort of damage; she pulled the door open, and her eyes went wide behind her yellow glasses as she saw who stood outside.

“You”, she still had time to say, the stunned tone of her voice prompting Erin to take a step closer… and then the girl let out an enraged yell and exploded into motion, going from standing still to rushing the engineer so fast that Holtzmann barely had time to blink.

Already when the girl slammed into her and drove her back, she could tell what had been done to the poor girl, her breath getting knocked out of her at the unexpected weight ramming into her.

Somehow, she managed to stay on her feet, and to get a grip on the girl’s arms; she grit her teeth as she pushed her back, amazed by the strength the girl had displayed already, all too aware that it hadn’t just been the extra weight which had driven her back.

“Stop”, Holtzmann pressed out between grit teeth, having to use considerable strength of her own to keep the girl at bay, and she knew she was no slouch in that department, either, “we can help you, just stop!”

The girl just let out another angry yell, and even though Holtzmann had known, on some level, that the girl was like her, it startled her when sharp metal blades shot out from between the girl’s knuckles with a _snikt_ she knew all too well.

She was startled enough to let her grip go slack, and the girl took the chance given at once, ramming forward again and burying all six blades in her stomach, all the way to her knuckles.

Erin knew that this would barely slow Holtzmann down, not with how fast her body could heal any sort of damage; she also knew though that, while her wounds healed quickly, Holtzmann felt pain just like a regular human, a wordless cry escaping her, her terror only growing when the girl yanked the blades back and Erin could actually hear the sound of metal on metal as they scraped along Holtzmann’s spine on the way back out.

“Stop”, Holtzmann tried to reason again, even though part of her already knew this wouldn’t lead anywhere – she could see the rage in the girl’s eyes, and knew exactly how this kind of anger felt, having lived with it ever since her mutation had kicked in.

She didn’t want to fight the girl though, and not just because she knew it wouldn’t lead anywhere, not if the girl was like her; they could be cutting and hitting each other for hours with neither of them gaining the upper hand, and so, she fought her own anger and the urge to pop out her claws, ducking when the girl swiped at her, the sharp blades barely missing her.

To her dismay, Holtzmann had to realize quickly that the girl had been taught how to fight, and had been taught well – instead of reeling from the miss, she recovered within the blink of an eye and her foot shot out, kicking the engineer straight in the face, hard enough to not only snap her head back, but to send her crashing to the floor, her breath getting knocked out of her again as she landed hard on her back.

“Stop it!” she heard Erin shout, but couldn’t dare to look, as the girl was launching herself up in the air, claws glinting as she came rushing down; somehow, Holtzmann managed to roll over in time to avoid getting impaled again, but only had time to get up on her hands and knees, then the girl had yanked her claws back out of the floor, twirled around with stunning speed and rammed them into Holtzmann’s back, the engineer screaming in pain while Erin cried out again.

Unperturbed by all this sounds of dismay, the girl’s muscles flexed as she grit her teeth, not simply pulling the claws back out this time, apparently having realized that this did no real damage to Holtzmann; instead of just pulling back, she performed a sort of flip over the kneeling engineer and then used the momentum to throw her, a pained grunt coming from the blonde when she landed on Erin’s desk, the wood shattering beneath her.

By the time she came to her feet again, Erin could see the girl’s rage mirrored in Holtzmann’s eyes, and it was no surprise that the engineer let out a low growl as she stopped holding back and her own claws slid out between her knuckles.

What did surprise Erin was the way the girl smiled at the sight, as if she had been waiting, perhaps even hoping, for this all along.

Snarling, Holtzmann shot forward, just as the girl got moving again, too; sparks flew when their claws met, and blood splattered, Erin belatedly coming to the same realization Holtzmann had had – if the girl was exactly like her, and they had no reason to think that she wasn’t, seeing that bringing out her claws hadn’t caused any bleeding or visible wounds, this fight could go on indefinitely, with neither of them getting hurt bad enough to be forced into stopping or just getting tired out enough.

She could only see one solution, and even though she knew it was dangerous, she didn’t let that knowledge stop her, taking in a deep breath as she focused, neither Holtzmann nor the girl noticing what she was doing, not even when she brought up her hands, a slight frown creasing her brow as she tapped into her powers.

She had been practicing ever since the Ghostbusters had been formed, and had gotten considerably better and stronger at this point; after having neglected her gift for years, it had taken her quite a bit of training and many headaches to accomplish her current level, and holding persons in place was still hard, but it was the only thing she could do, knowing that getting involved any other way would be too dangerous.

Figuring that the girl made the better target, Erin focused, her eyes narrowing; and a moment later, the girl froze, the rage in her eyes replaced with confusion, then fear as she found herself unable to move.

“Holtz”, Erin said, knowing that her voice could get through to the engineer even when she was angry, “that’s enough. Both of you. Stop it.”

Holtzmann reacted at once, just as Erin had hoped, retracting her claws, even though she still looked pissed off; Erin could feel the girl strain against her telekinetic hold, but refused to let go, fearing that the girl might attack Holtzmann again the moment she’d be able to move – or perhaps go after her instead.

“Erin’s right”, Holtzmann said, the last few cuts closing up even as she spoke, to Erin’s relief, “this won’t lead anywhere. As I said, we can help you.”

The girl grit her teeth in response, and Erin, realizing that she wanted to say something, loosened her hold, just enough to let her speak, but not enough to let her move more than the parts which were necessary for that; the girl glared at her, then focused on Holtzmann again, voice cold when she replied.

“Why should I believe you”, she demanded to know, looking as if she would have crossed her arms over her chest, had she been able to move, “you didn’t help me back then, either. X-19. Or should I say _sister_?”


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Bit of violence in this one - nothing too bad I think, just giving you a little heads-up :)

“Okay”, Erin said a short while later, sitting on the couch in the firehouse’s lobby area now, Holtzmann next to her, still in her bloodstained and cut up clothing while the girl had taken Patty’s favourite armchair opposite of them, still looking angry, but at least not trying to kill Holtzmann anymore, “now we’re all calm, good. So we can talk. Do you want anything? Are you hungry or thirsty?”

“No”, the girl curtly replied, crossing her arms after all now, looking every bit like a sulky teenager all of a sudden and not like the angry killing machine she had been not even ten minutes ago, “and I don’t have anything to talk about with you.”

“You show up here late in the evening and try to kill me”, Holtzmann gave back, in a dry tone so similar to the girl’s that it made Erin raise an eyebrow, “I think that is something we should talk about.”

“You left me there”, the girl accused immediately, glaring at the engineer, “I saw you, when I was in that tank, with the general. You killed them all and left me there, so they could keep me in one of their labs!”

“She couldn’t have helped you”, Erin answered before Holtzmann could, reaching over to grasp the blonde’s hand, having felt her tense up at the girl’s accusation, “they had her completely under control, she would have helped you if she’d been able to.”

“I didn’t even remember you were there”, Holtzmann added, the girl giving her a look of disbelief, “Erin and… a friend had to cut my skull open and dig around in my brain to get me… back, for lack of a better word, I didn’t remember much from the time I was under their control, until I saw you in a nightmare.”

“Charming”, the girl dryly replied, but at least seemed to believe her, since she didn’t accuse her of lying or tried to attack her again; Erin didn’t need to read Holtzmann’s mind to know how guilty the engineer felt, squeezing her hand tenderly, a gesture the girl didn’t miss, but one she didn’t comment on.

“I’m sorry”, Holtzmann said in an uncharacteristically soft voice, “I would have gotten you out if I’d been able to.”

“Why should I believe you”, the girl demanded to know, with another glare, “you could be making this up on the spot.”

“They did to me what they did to you”, Holtzmann told her, Erin squeezing her hand once more, not quite sure how Holtzmann would react to being accused of making up all the horrible things she’d gone through at the hands of the army, “against my will, when I was nineteen. I had someone who helped me get out back then, and if I had been able to, I would have done the same for you.”

“I still have no reason to believe you”, the girl replied, with another hard look at the engineer, “your claws prove nothing, you could have let them do that voluntarily.”

“…I know how to prove it”, Holtzmann gave back, earning a surprised look from Erin, a reaction not unnoticed by the girl, “just let me make one phone call.”

She pulled her phone from her pocket, the device thankfully not having gotten destroyed during the fight; the girl watched her closely, as if she expected her to pull out a weapon instead of a phone, and Erin watched the girl, amazed by the resemblance to Holtzmann she could see, now that they were all sitting calmly and not trying to cut each other open.

They had the same eyes, she could tell at once, and their faces had a very similar bone structure; the girl’s hair was darker, but then, Erin realized, Holtzmann was bleaching hers, and the roots which showed every now and then were very similar in colour to the hair of the girl sitting opposite of them.

“Hi”, Holtzmann was saying next to her as her call was taken, distracting Erin from her observations, “yes, I’m fine. Well, mostly. There’s been an… interesting development, could you come here? To the firehouse. And… bring the video? … yes, _that_ video. Yes, I have a good reason for it. Okay, thanks.”

She hung up, Erin giving her another questioning look, but not asking; the girl just raised an eyebrow, but didn’t say anything either, not looking all too impressed when Holtzmann told her that soon, she would have her proof.

She didn’t say anything, but her stomach rumbled audibly, and to Erin’s amazement, she looked a bit sheepish at the look both Holtzmann and she herself shot her; then, Erin shook her head, making the girl look at her, and tried her best to sound kind and caring when she spoke up.

“Can I trust the two of you to not start fighting again the moment I leave the room?” she wanted to know, “cause if so, I’ll get you something to eat, we got some leftover pizza from lunch.”

“I’ll be good”, Holtzmann solemnly told her, making her smile while the girl rolled her eyes; she gave a short nod though, as well, and that was enough for Erin, the physicist giving Holtzmann’s hand another squeeze before she got up from the couch and went to get the food, her mind racing as she tried to wrap her head around what had happened in the last half hour and tried to figure out how this newest development would affect their lives in the foreseeable future.

* * *

Shortly after the girl had devoured the pizza, with an impressive speed which had shown that her claims of not being hungry had not been quite correct, Dr Gorin arrived, looking worried when Holtzmann opened the door, and almost amusingly stunned when she got a good look at the girl; before she had the chance to ask though, Holtzmann told her they would explain later, and she accepted that at once, simply nodding, a gesture she repeated when Holtzmann asked if she had brought the video.

“Alright”, Holtzmann said, noticeably tense, earning a concerned look from Erin, “let’s get this over with then, before we end up in another fight, we already ruined Erin’s desk.”

“I don’t even want to know”, Gorin sighed as she reached into her bag and pulled out a simple black DVD case; before she handed it to Holtzmann though, she asked if the engineer was sure about that, earning a wry smile and a nod.

“Okay”, the engineer then said, moving to the TV they used for relaxing after hard busts, “if you don’t believe my words, maybe seeing it will convince you.”

The girl looked sceptical, but remained where she was, only turning her head a bit so she could look at the TV; Holtzmann put the DVD into the player, then sat down next to Erin on the couch, so tense that the physicist immediately gave her a concerned look, placing one hand on her back as she asked her if she was okay.

“Fine”, the blonde mumbled, hesitating though before she pushed the button on the remove which started the video; and once she had put the remote down, Erin just had to take one look at how she began rubbing the skin between her knuckles to know how uncomfortable she was, and wordlessly put her hand on Holtzmann’s back again, earning a brief, grateful look.

The screen remained black for a bit, then a picture appeared, all four women watching in silence; and it just took a few seconds until Erin took in a sharp breath she recognized the place the screen was showing.

She had seen it before after all, when her guard had been down during sleep and she had gotten a glimpse of Holtzmann’s nightmares.

“Weapon X program, specimen X-19”, an unseen speaker said somewhere off camera, while whoever was filming moved in a circle, taking in the whole lab, “female mutant, found at the campus of MIT. Powers are drastically increased healing rate and congenital bone claws, see file X-19/1728 for further details.”

Several people briefly appeared in the frame as the camera kept moving, men and women in white lab coats and army uniforms; Erin spotted Dr Gorin among them, the woman’s face younger, but before she could focus on that, the camera centred on the tank which stood in the middle of the room, and from how the girl took in a sharp gasp, Erin could tell that she had recognized it, as well.

Holtzmann tensed up even further, until it felt as if Erin’s hand was resting on a rock; she didn’t look away though, and so, Erin didn’t allow herself to do so, either, telling herself that Holtzmann had _lived_ this and that the least she could do was watch it, reminding herself that she seen this before, when her power had connected her to Holtzmann’s nightmares.

Still she had to realize fairly quickly that this was different from experiencing it from the engineer’s point of view through her bad dreams, when a stretcher was wheeled into the frame, a younger version of Holtzmann strapped to it with thick leather bonds, her bone claws out, but her hands tied down so that she couldn’t get at the belts, no matter how much she squirmed and struggled.

“Regular anaesthetics have shown little to no effect”, the unseen speaker went on, “consensus among the scientific personnel was to try without. Specimen will be monitored closely for the duration of the procedure.”

Erin could feel her heart beat faster as she knew what would come next; in the background, she could see Gorin say something to one of the other scientists, remembering what she had seen during one of Holtzmann’s flashbacks, how the engineer’s later mentor had had her doubts if perhaps, Holtzmann wasn’t too young for what they had planned.

Her protest had been shot down though, Erin remembered, they had gone through with it, with no concern about Holtzmann’s age or what the procedure might do to her; and a moment later, tears blurred her sight as the young Holtzmann on the screen pleaded with them to not do this, the fear in her voice impossible to miss.

“Please, just let me go”, she was saying, while on the couch, Holtzmann tensed up even further, not reacting the slightest when Erin started rubbing her back, “I promise I won’t say anything to anyone, don’t do this…”

“Shut up”, one of the soldiers said in a harsh tone, then they more or less forced her to do exactly that by strapping the oxygen mask over her mouth and nose; she was crying at this point, and so was Erin on the couch, not able to imagine the terror Holtzmann must have felt, not knowing what they would do to her, what plans they had for her.

They moved the part of the stretcher she had been strapped to and lowered it into the tank; Erin wiped at her eyes as she knew what would come next, and knew how much it had hurt, but still didn’t allow herself to look away, keeping her eyes on the screen even when the tears started trickling down her cheeks.

“Procedure beginning in five… four…”, the speaker started to count down, and even through the water in the tank, Erin could see that Holtzmann kept struggling, tried to break free; she froze though when the unseen person had finished counting down and the machinery around the tank whirred to life, moving up the long and sharp needles Erin had seen and felt through Holtzmann’s nightmares.

The person who was filming moved closer to the tank, close enough so that they all could see how the needles started to rotate, slowly at first, then faster, until they were moving so fast that they started to blur; and then, they were lowered, and Erin couldn’t keep herself from flinching when she saw them pierce flesh.

None of them could hear Holtzmann scream, due to the oxygen mask and the water in the tank, but they could see her body rear up and her muscles tense, and how her mouth opened as the pain got too much.

From the corner of her eye, Erin saw how stiff the girl sat in the chair at this point, all her attention on the screen; Holtzmann was just as tense next to her, her breath having quickened as she watched herself to through this again, still rubbing the skin between her knuckles, but not looking away.

It seemed to last forever, Erin thought to herself as she watched, no sound coming from her as tears kept trickling down her cheeks; someone off screen, not the first person who had spoken, but someone else, was commenting on Holtzmann’s vitals as the procedure continued, sounding a bit concerned when her heart rate kept rising.

“Up to three hundred beats per minute”, they all heard, the camera staying focused on the tank, “blood pressure at two-seventy to one-eighty. Heartrate and blood pressure still rising.”

“Procedure almost complete”, another voice said, while the camera moved over the watching scientists and army people, and even though she was just in the frame for a second, Erin picked up the look of deep dismay on Gorin’s face, “ninety-seven percent…ninety-eight…”

They reached one hundred, and the needles stopped, then were pulled back; and in the same second, the one who had been monitoring Holtzmann’s vitals said “she’s flatlining!” in an alarmed tone, the drawn-out beep following a second later as if to confirm it, and even though Erin knew that Holtzmann had survived this cruel procedure, her own heart stopped too at the sight of this younger version of her girlfriend lifeless in the tank.

“Procedure failed”, the other speaker said, sounding annoyed, but not all too bothered by the fact that someone just had died in this lab, “remove her. We’ll find another one.”

Two soldiers came walking into the frame, reached into the tank and pulled out the board Holtzmann was still strapped to; they moved it back onto the stretcher, and began undoing the straps, and that was when Holtzmann’s eyes opened.

Even with the shocked shouts and yelps of the watching people, the _snikt_ of the claws, now sharp blades instead of the bone they had been before, was clearly audible, followed by pained cries from the soldiers as Holtzmann slashed at them.

They went down, and that was the last coherent bit the camera captured, as whoever had been holding it dropped it and ran; there was more shouting, and shots being fired, until the screen suddenly went black, Holtzmann letting out a heavy breath, clearly relieved that it was over.

“So”, she then said, looking at the girl again, who had gone as white as a bedsheet at this point, “you believe me now?”


	3. Chapter 3

“I believe you”, the girl brought out, with an audible tremble in her voice, while Erin wiped at her eyes, then, without a word, turned on her seat to hug the engineer; she couldn’t have cared less at this moment that both the girl and Gorin were in the room and watching, just eager to have Holtzmann in her arms, to reassure her that this horrible time was over and to reassure herself that the engineer was alive and well.

“I’ve told you this before”, Gorin said after clearing her throat, once Erin had pulled back from the embrace and had found a tissue to blow her nose, “but… I’m so sorry, Jillian. I never should have been part of this program, and I should have stopped them.”

“You tried, though”, Holtzmann mumbled, while Erin kept holding on to her hands, unwilling to let go of her fully, “I remember. You told them I was too young.”

“And you got her out”, Erin added, managing a weak smile even though she still felt pained after what she just had seen; the girl looked at Gorin in surprise at this, then cleared her throat, making them all look at her again.

“I believe you”, she said again, looking as if she was about to get sick, probably flashing back to her own “procedure”, Erin thought to herself, her heart suddenly flying out to the girl despite how she had attacked Holtzmann not even two hours ago, “they did this to you against your will, too. I… I’m sorry for attacking you.”

“No hard feelings”, Holtzmann shrugged at once, and Erin was amazed to see the girl smile faintly in response, “it’s not like we did any lasting damage to each other. So, um… you wanna tell us your name, now that we’re not trying to kill each other anymore?”

“X-21”, the girl replied at once, and suddenly Erin felt angry, because of course they wouldn’t have given her a name, but had referred to her with her project number, like they had done to Holtzmann when she had been under their control.

“Well, we can’t call you that”, Gorin said, back to her usual dry tone by now, “if they gave you no other name, perhaps you could choose one for yourself?”

“Oh”, the girl let out, clearly not having expected that, “I… guess so? Um, I like Jane, so…”

“Jane it is, then”, Holtzmann said, glad that this had been resolved fairly quickly, “alright. So… I get if you don’t want to tell us how you got out, but…”

“Pretty much like you, I imagine”, Jane gave back, shrugging, appearing not all too perturbed by what she had done to get out, “I cut them all down and ran. Only I… sort of felt drawn here, to this place, I’m not even sure why but… I knew you’d be here. Somehow.”

“It’s a good thing you came here”, Erin commented, both Holtzmann and Gorin nodding at once, “just in case they’ll come after you, we can help, we’ve fought them off before.”

“If they learned anything from their previous encounter with the four of you, they’ll stay away”, Gorin said in her usual dry tone, making Holtzmann smirk and nod; then, the elder woman came to her feet, letting them know that she would head back home now that no one was in danger of being stabbed or sliced open anymore, surprising Holtzmann afterwards as she moved up to her and hugged her, a rare physical display of affection from her.

“You know I don’t blame you”, Holtzmann blurted out once Gorin had pulled back, making her nod briefly; she gave one of her rare, small smiles, then told them to call her in case they needed anything before she left, Erin suddenly feeling tired and drained as the door fell close behind the elder woman, the use of her powers and the emotional impact of having watched that video taking its toll on her.

“I guess we’ve all had a long day”, Holtzmann said, earning nods from both Erin and Jane, the teenager looking tired too at this point, “I’ll ready the couch for you Jane, and we can figure out how to continue tomorrow.”

“Okay”, Jane gave back, stifling a yawn; Holtzmann gave her a short smile, then went to find everything she’d need to get the couch ready, while Erin asked her if she wanted to eat or drink anything before going to sleep, the teenager sounding almost timid when she replied and told her that some water would be nice.

Erin smiled at her and nodded, then went get a glass; and while Jane was gulping the water down, Holtzmann came back with a pillow and a blanket and some loose clothing she could wear to sleep, her own clothes bloodstained and torn, the engineer frowning when she saw not only the slashes her claws had left in the fabric, but a few bullet holes, as well.

“We’ll be right upstairs”, she said instead of commenting on the bullet holes, knowing from experience how fast shot wounds healed with the accelerated healing she shared with Jane, “so if you need anything, just yell.”

Jane nodded again, in the process of changing into the clothes Holtzmann had brought, clearly not bothered by the two women in the room; they wished her a good night, then retreated to the upstairs bedroom, a hearty yawn coming from Erin as she changed into her own sleepwear, glad she always kept a pair of clean pyjamas at the firehouse.

“Well, that was unexpected and exciting”, Holtzmann said, grimacing at the slashes, holes and bloodstains in her own shirt before she, with a sigh, tossed it into the trash bin, “and another shirt ruined. But at least she won’t try to stab me in my sleep.”

“That is good indeed”, Erin nodded, then sat down somewhat heavily on the bed, Holtzmann sitting down next to her a moment later, sensing that there was more her girlfriend had to say, but not pushing, giving her time to sort her thoughts.

“I’ve known before what you went through”, Erin finally spoke up again, having to swallow heavily before she could continue, “when I saw it in your nightmares. But… seeing this today…”  
  
She fell silent as her throat felt oddly tight again, and swallowed heavily, not wanting to cry again – after all, Holtzmann had actually lived this, and had watched the video without breaking down, holding back her tears getting considerably harder though when Holtzmann put one arm around her shoulders and pulled her close.

“Just… seeing how they treated you, as if you’re some sort of… _thing_ ”, she finally went on, once she could be sure she wouldn’t burst into tears the moment she’d open her mouth, “and how little they cared when you flatlined… and you never told me that happened!”

She lightly swatted Holtzmann’s arm, making the engineer yelp more out of surprise than actual pain; looking a bit sheepish, Holtzmann shrugged, scratching the back of her head as she responded, Erin’s face softening at her words.

“When I’m awake, I don’t remember much of it”, she let the physicist know, “it only comes back when I’m asleep. And since I was kinda dead, I guess I can’t dream about that, either?”

“Good point”, Erin had to admit, “but still, that was scary. Even if you were sitting right next to me, so I knew you survived. I’m so sorry you had to go through all of this…”

She turned slightly so she could hug the engineer, and buried her face in Holtzmann’s shoulder; holding her close, Holtzmann rubbed her back, and Erin shuddered, not wanting to imagine a life without Holtzmann by her side.

“It was frightening”, she mumbled into the other woman’s shoulder, “how you laid on that board when they took you out, all still and quiet. Not even when you sleep, you lie so still, you know. And… I know it hurt, I _know_ , but… seeing those needles, all over your body…”

She shuddered again, and felt Holtzmann rub her back in response, in an attempt to give her some comfort; taking in a deep breath, she finally pulled back and wiped at her eyes, giving the engineer an apologetic look afterwards.

“I’m sorry”, she said, before Holtzmann could question what that was for, “you went through it, I just saw it and here I am, all teary. I should be comforting you, not the other way round…”

“It’s okay”, Holtzmann reassured her, then gave her a wry smile as she continued, “and you didn’t just see it, I know you felt it too, when my nightmares… leaked. So…”

She shrugged, earning a weak smile from the physicist; Holtzmann took a moment to smile back at her, then leaned in to kiss her gently, Erin kissing her back at once, tightening her embrace around the younger woman.

“I’m glad you made it through all of this”, the redhead mumbled once they had pulled apart again, another quick, but gentle kiss following those words before she continued, “and are here with me now. I love you.”

“Love you, too”, Holtzmann reassured her, then kissed her for a third time; and afterwards, they laid down to sleep, and no nightmares plagued Holtzmann’s slumber, both of them sleeping peacefully through the rest of that night.

Neither of them had the slightest idea that this day had just been the beginning of their troubles.


	4. Chapter 4

Shortly after they had moved to the firehouse, Abby and Patty had realized that they had a similar route to work now, and so, often met at the subway station in the mornings, then walked to the firehouse together, usually getting breakfast on the way, chatting amiably as they walked together.

They had gotten breakfast again, coffee for themselves and pastries for all five of them, Kevin included; they were in a good mood as they reached the firehouse and entered together, only to freeze on the spot, falling silent as all they could do was stand and stare.

It was quite clear that some sort of fight had happened in the lobby, dried blood on the floor and several deep gouges in the wood here and there which they knew well, recognizing them as having been left by Holtzmann’s claws; a second, closer look showed that Erin’s desk was broken, and then, they both saw the lump on the couch, buried beneath a blanket, the two women exchanging a look before they slowly crept closer.

“What the Hell happened here”, Patty whispered, not wanting to risk waking up whoever was on the couch; despite how quietly she had been speaking though, the lump got moving from one second to the next, a teenaged girl shooting out from under the blanket and snarling at them while sharp metal blades, suspiciously looking like the ones Holtzmann had, slid out from between her knuckles.

“Holy shit!” Abby yelped, fighting against her first instinctual response to teleport away and to safety, not wanting to leave Patty alone; she wasn’t quite sure what she would do though, should the girl attack them, her eyes darting back and forth as she looked for something she could use to defend herself.

“Holtz!” Patty bellowed a second later, seeming much less perturbed then Abby, even though the girl was glaring at them both as if she wanted to skewer them with her claws any second; thankfully, her shout had been loud enough to wake the engineer, and just a few moments later, Holtzmann came sliding down the pole while Erin was walking down the stairs, rubbing at her eyes.

“Oops”, Holtzmann said, belatedly realizing that perhaps, it might have been a good idea to inform Abby and Patty about what had happened before they’d come to the firehouse, “what a ding-a-ling, I guess we should have called you guys. Jane, no claws, they’re the other two members of our team.”

Jane looked sceptical, but retracted the claws, to Erin’s relief, the physicist not having been quite sure that the teenager would listen to Holtzmann; she still was tense, Erin could tell, but relaxed a bit when Holtzmann gave her a calming smile, looking a bit sheepish at the look Abby and Patty shot her next.

“You really should have called!” Patty scolded, shaking her head, “we come here expecting a regular day and instead find a teenaged girl on the couch with claws like yours.”

“Sorry”, Holtzmann apologized, “things got… a bit hectic yesterday, we kinda… forgot.”

“Hectic might be an understatement”, Abby commented, eying the gouges in the floor and Erin’s destroyed desk, “Erin, what happened to your desk?”

“Holtz fell on it”, Erin gave back, earning a raised eyebrow, “and she’s right, things were a bit hectic last evening indeed, after you’d left. It’s all good now though. This is Jane, Jane, these are Abby and Patty, as Holtz said, our colleagues and friends.”

“Wait”, Abby was hit by a sudden realization, eyes going wide, “the girl you saw at that lab…?”

“Yup”, Holtzmann confirmed, while Jane looked a bit uncomfortable now, clearly not liking it to be reminded of her time at said lab, “she got out and came here.”

“Aw man”, Patty said, shaking her head, both Abby and her well aware of the things Holtzmann had gone through in this lab and figuring that Jane hadn’t been treated much better, “you poor thing! Good thing you made it out of there!”

Abby nodded her agreement, and just like that, it was accepted that Jane had come to the firehouse and had been given shelter there; and with the question of who the teenager actually was answered, Patty immediately went into caring mode, declaring that she had to get some proper breakfast.

“What do you like?” she asked Jane as she led her into the kitchen, the girl’s answer not quite audible anymore; Abby took another look at all the damage done to the lobby and shook her head, then asked Holtzmann if she was okay, the engineer shrugging in response.

“You know I’m hard to kill”, she then said, and Abby rolled her eyes before she pointed out that this wasn’t what she had meant, even though she knew Holtzmann was perfectly aware of this already.

“Yeah”, the engineer reassured her, managing a wry smile, “it was quite the shock to have her at our door yesterday, and she didn’t exactly react well to me at first, but… It’s all good now, I’m glad she got out of there.”

“Didn’t react well might be another understatement”, Abby said, with another look at Erin’s desk, “but as long as you’re all alright… We’ll have to get you a new desk, Erin.”

“We need to go out and do some shopping, anyway”, Erin pointed out with a shrug, “Jane is gonna need some clothing, they didn’t exactly let her pack a bag when she made her escape.”

Abby grimaced and nodded, then frowned as an unpleasant thought hit her, saying it out loud before Erin or Holtzmann had the chance to ask.

“You think they’ll come after her?” she wanted to know, Holtzmann frowning too at the thought, “they did come after you, Holtz, and once they realize that she’s gone from their lab…”

“Dr Gorin said that if they learned anything from going after me, they won’t”, Holtzmann said, making Abby blink as she hadn’t known so far that Gorin had been there, too, “but they can be dumb and stubborn, so they might still try to get her back. I imagine that… creating her wasn’t cheap, so…”

“That sounds so wrong”, Erin grimaced, making Holtzmann nod at once; the physicist reached out and placed one hand on the other woman’s shoulder, earning a weak smile from her, only for all three women to flinch when they could hear Patty cry out in the kitchen.

“Jane, no!” the historian was scolding, all three moving at once to make sure nothing bad was happening, slowing down though at what Patty said next, Holtzmann smirking to herself as it wasn’t the first time they were hearing this.

“No cutting food with your claws”, Patty scolded as the other three entered the kitchen, Jane looking a bit sheepish, one claw still out, “use a knife!”

“Patty doesn’t like it when we cut food with our claws”, Holtzmann unnecessarily pointed out, moving to one of the drawers and retrieving a knife from it, speaking on as she handed it to the teenager, “she thinks it unsanitary, I keep telling her it is not, but she won’t believe me.”

“It is”, Patty insisted, glad that Jane was making use of the knife now instead of her claws, “they come out of inside your arms, it’s not sterile in there!”

“Don’t start this discussion again, please”, Erin threw in before Holtzmann had the chance to argue back, “it’s too early for this, I haven’t even had coffee yet.”

She shuffled to the coffee machine, rubbing at her tired eyes again; and while she waited for the coffee to get done, Holtzmann found cups and plates for the rest of them, and soon, all five of them sat at the breakfast table, no claws making an appearance, to Patty’s relief, the Ghostbusters noticing though that Jane seemed oddly subdued as she ate.

“So”, Holtzmann said, eager to break the silence before it could become uncomfortable, “you want to go shopping after breakfast? We’ll need to get you some proper clothes, and a new desk for Erin.”

“Shopping?” Jane echoed, sounding so surprised that Holtzmann was almost taken aback, surprise in the teenager’s eyes as well when she looked at the engineer, “why would you… um, I sort of assumed you’d want me to leave after breakfast, not take me out to buy stuff.”

“What”, Erin gave back, by now awake enough to be proper part of the conversation, “no, we don’t want you to leave! What makes you think that?”

Jane shrugged, poking at her pancakes with her fork, suddenly finding it hard to look any of them in the eye; and her whole demeanour reminded Erin so much of Holtzmann when the engineer was uncomfortable that her heart flew out to the teenager, suddenly overflowing with sympathy.

“You have no reason to let me stay here”, the girl mumbled, pushing a piece of pancake back and forth on her plate, “especially not after what I did yesterday. So I figured, you’d want me to leave as fast as possible…”

“We don’t”, Patty said, making the other three nod at once, “nobody here wants you to leave. You can stay here as long as you want. Maybe you can spar with Holtzy, help her get rid of that excess energy when there hasn’t been a bust for a while. That might reduce the number of poofs in the lab, too!”

“Hey!” Holtzmann protested, while Abby snickered and Erin hid her smirk behind her coffee cup, “the poofs have nothing to do with my excess energy. They just… happen.”

“Anyway”, Abby threw in, before a discussion about the frequency and necessity of small and medium poofs could begin, “as Patty said, you can stay here as long as you want, and if you want to spar with Holtz, go ahead, but maybe without breaking any more furniture?”

“Sparring would be unfair though”, Jane pointed out, shrugging at the questioning look Holtzmann shot her, “they taught me how to fight, you know, and, no offense, but… I’m way better at hand to hand than you are.”

“No offense taken”, Holtzmann reassured her, Jane looking quite relieved at those words, making the engineer wonder what sort of reaction she had been expecting, “then you can teach me a thing or two. I mostly use my claws against ghosts, but it can never hurt to be better.”

“They work on ghosts?” Jane wanted to know in response, sounding surprised, “I thought just against… you know. Material things.”

“They usually don’t”, Holtzmann let her know, a bit proud now of how she had changed that, “I built something so they would. A little add-on to my gloves which coats them in a proton stream.”

“Oooh”, Jane let out, sounding quite fascinated, making the women smile, “can I see?”

“Sure!” Holtzmann jumped at a chance to show off her work; they both got up from their seats, breakfast forgotten, and hurried upstairs, Erin looking after them with a small smile on her face, suddenly quite sure that everything about this situation, as weird as it was, would work out just fine.


	5. Chapter 5

While Holtzmann had shown off her modified gloved to a duly impressed Jane, Erin had showered, and afterwards Holtzmann and Jane each had gone through their bathroom routine, the teenager doing so with a military precision which made her get done quite fast; and once they all were presentable, and Holtzmann had found some clothes the teenager could wear, the three of them went out to buy her some clothes, Jane looking around in amazement as they walked to the subway.

“I didn’t pay much attention when I ran here”, she let Holtzmann know as they walked, Erin on the blonde’s other side, loosely holding hands with her, “so I didn’t really realize how big it all is, wow.”

“Fair warning”, Holtzmann gave back, making Erin smile with what she said next, “assuming your senses work as well as mine do, the subway might be a bit… overwhelming at first. But you’ll get used to it quickly.”

“Okay”, Jane said, curious, but figuring she would find out soon what Holtzmann meant as the subway station was fairly close to the firehouse; and once they had moved underground, and gotten onto one of the trains, she quickly realized what the engineer had meant, a myriad of scents and noises assaulting her senses, making it difficult for her to keep her calm.

“It’s alright”, Holtzmann mumbled to her, making sure to stay close to her, figuring that the last thing they needed was for the teenager to have some sort of freakout among all these people, “it’s not far, just focus on something nice.”

Jane managed a brief nod, ignoring the questioning looks some of the people around sent her way; thankfully, they didn’t need to stay on the train for long, and she took in a deep breath the moment they were outside again, giving Holtzmann a dismayed look afterwards.

“That was terrible!” she then said, looking offended when Holtzmann snickered, “how can you stand taking these trains every day?!”

“Our very first bust was in a subway tunnel”, the engineer told her, earning a look of disbelief now, “the smells there were so much worse, be glad we just rode the train and didn’t need to go into a tunnel.”

“I just have a regular human’s average sense of smell, I guess”, Erin threw in, “but even I felt queasy there. It was bad.”

“I imagine”, Jane grimaced, just glad that she was out of the subway; she shook her head as if to clear it, then nodded when Holtzmann gleefully asked if she was ready to spend some money, her dismay about the subway ride quickly forgotten as she found herself amazed at the sheer amount of stores everywhere.

“Guess we better wait a week or two before we take you to Times Square”, Holtzmann commented at her awestruck face, prompting Erin to nudge her slightly; she smiled innocently at the physicist, then took her hand again as they entered the first store, ready to get Jane everything she’d need for her stay with them.

* * *

When they finally were on their way back to the firehouse, Holtzmann was quite glad that both Jane and she had above average strength, which made carrying all the bags a bit easier; Erin carried noticeably less, which earned them all curious looks from the pedestrians, but none of them cared, Erin and Holtzmann feeling quite good at how happy Jane appeared with all her new possessions.

“I’ve never owned so much stuff”, Jane told them as they walked from the subway to the firehouse, the teenager having been relieved to learn that Holtzmann had been right, the second ride on the train already having been easier, “at the lab, I only had the clothes they would give me, and my training things.”

“Well, no more lab for you”, Holtzmann told her, glad the average New Yorker would think nothing of this dialogue even if they should happen to hear all of it, “we won’t let them take you back there even if they do come after you, I promise.”

“Yes”, Erin nodded her agreement at once, making Jane smile, the teenager obviously touched by the willingness of the two women to help, “we’ve fought them off before, when they came after Holtz. We can do it again.”

“Thank you”, Jane gave back, having to swallow heavily before she could continue, “I know you guys don’t owe me anything, and have no reason to help me, especially not after how I acted when I came to the firehouse yesterday. So… thank you.”

“Nothing to thank us for”, Holtzmann reassured her, making her smile again; then, they reached the firehouse, and upon entering, were surprised to find Dr Gorin waiting for them, the elder woman shooting them an annoyed look from where she was sitting on the couch.

“Jillian”, she said before Holtzmann had the chance to say something, shaking her head, “just yesterday, Jane escaped from a highly secretive government laboratory, and today you take her shopping? You might as well mount a neon sign to the firehouse, proclaiming that she’s here.”

“Um”, Holtzmann let out, having to admit that this was a good point, and a bit stumped at the fact that neither Erin, nor she herself had thought of this unpleasant fact, “true. But hey, nothing happened.”

“This time”, Gorin replied with a shake of her head, “Jane, I understand that you are eager to see more of the world, after the time you spent in this lab, but I do suggest you lay low for a while.”

“Yes”, Jane nodded at once, looking sheepish, and Erin found herself wondering if the teenager found Dr Gorin as intimidating as Erin herself did; figuring that it would be rude to ask this in front of said woman, she kept these thoughts to herself, clearing her throat noisily when Dr Gorin’s stern gaze moved to her next.

“Dr Gilbert”, she said with a shake of her head, still not calling her Erin despite all the time Holtzmann and she had been together at this point, “usually, you’re the reasonable one who keeps Jillian from doing reckless things.”

“She tries, at least”, Holtzmann supplied, not all too helpful, earning another hard look from her mentor; she cleared her throat and actually blushed, but before she could defend herself, Jane spoke up again, squaring her shoulders as if to prepare herself for another verbal blow in response to her words.

“It’s my fault, you shouldn’t be mad at them”, she told the elder woman, looking her in the eye the whole time, “I came to them, attacked them – well, one of them – and they offered me their hospitality in return. Don’t yell at them for helping me.”

“…just lay low”, Gorin sighed, making her nod at once, “you’re lucky they didn’t try to grab you in broad daylight, they can be very unsubtle sometimes. So you’re staying here for now?”

“Yes”, Holtzmann answered for the girl, her mentor not looking surprised the slightest, “she has nowhere else to go, and… we’re sort of alike. Even related? I can’t just send her away.”

“A friend of mine is working on getting a look at some files”, Gorin let them know, making Jane raise an eyebrow while Holtzmann just smirked, very aware of the connections Gorin still had, despite how abruptly she had left the project back then, “I’ll let you know as soon as I received any info. One can’t deny a certain resemblance though, looking at the two of you standing side by side like that.”

“Yeah, I’ve noticed, too”, Erin threw in, making Gorin nod, “there’s definitely some shared characteristics. You know, I sort of wish I could see you both in combat now, not against each other, but against ghosts or something, to see if you move similarly.”

“Quite likely”, Gorin pondered out loud, while Holtzmann and Jane exchanged an amusingly similar look, one which wasn’t unnoticed by Gorin and Erin, “we do know that you don’t just share similarities about your looks. It is useless to speculate though, so I suggest we wait for information from my contact.”

All three nodded to that, and thankfully, Gorin felt no further need to scold them about going out like that; and so, while Jane went to put her new belongings away, Erin and Holtzmann sat down with Dr Gorin to plan their next steps, figuring that laying low for at least a few days would be a good idea indeed, Dr Gorin promising them that she would try her hardest to find out if the military was actually looking for Jane – or if she had been written off as a failed experiment, just like they had done with Holtzmann when she had escaped for the second time.

And as they spoke, Erin couldn’t shake the vague feeling that she was forgetting something, something big and important, not sure where this was coming from, and even less sure what she could do about it.


	6. Chapter 6

That night, Erin dreamed.

In her dreams, she went back to the lab, the one where they had found Holtzmann, the controlled, brainwashed version which only had reacted when Erin had given her commands, had addressed her as X-19; she saw soldiers fall as Holtzmann’s claws cut into them, and they fell because she had told Holtzmann to do this, this was her fault, as much as it was Holtzmann’s, perhaps even more of the guilt on her shoulders than on the engineer’s.

After all, she had given the command, she had told Holtzmann to do this, not in those exact words, but still her words had been what had made her do this; and to her amazement, as she looked down at one of the dead soldiers, he changed, the unfamiliar face melting oddly and reforming, until she was looking at Mayor Bradley.

She had a second to stare at him, then he opened his eyes and looked at her, and if her throat wouldn’t have felt too tight to let her make noise, she would have screamed.

“One”, he said, his voice oddly flat, lacking all intonation, as if a robot was speaking, “like. More. Need.”

All Erin could do was stare at him – until he suddenly reached out and grabbed her ankle, making her flinch, her eyes widening when he started squeezing, until it hurt, until she was sure it was leaving bruises.

“Let go!” she shrieked as he opened his mouth and blood spewed out from between his lips, “let go of me, now!”

She flung her hands up, intending to throw him away with her powers, and he did fly, she heard a low _thud_ and a sound of pain… but this time, the voice was Holtzmann’s, and Erin’s eyes flew open from one second to the next.

It was dark in the bedroom, but not pitch black darkness, and so, she could some vague shapes; and one of them, she realized with horror, was Holtzmann, the blonde coming to her feet again at the foot end of the bed, rubbing the back of her head, Erin only feeling more terrified when she realized what had happened.

“Oh my God!” she cried out, hurrying to switch on the nightstand lamp, suddenly sure that Holtzmann would be badly hurt and would spew blood like the mayor had in her nightmare, absurdly relieved when the engineer appeared to be fine at first glance, “Holtz, I’m so sorry! I don’t know what… Jesus!”

“I’m fine”, Holtzmann reassured her, moving to sit next to her on the edge of the bed, the concern in her eyes only making Erin feel worse, “but are you? You were having a nightmare, I tried to wake you up and you sent me flying.”

“I’m so sorry”, Erin apologized again, wringing her hands, finding it hard to believe how easily Holtzmann was taking this, “I had no idea it was you, I was having this dream and… oh my God.”

She sat up straight, her eyes widening again, as some of the details of her dream came back to her; without thinking, she blurted out “Mayor Bradley”, and Holtzmann looked at her in confusion, having no idea what she was talking about.

“He was in the dream”, Erin tried to clarify, even though that wasn’t helping much, running a shaking hand through her hair as she tried to sort her thoughts; sensing her turmoil, Holtzmann turned so that she was facing her and placed both hands on her shoulders, rubbing them soothingly in an attempt to calm her down, trying her best to keep her voice calm and soothing when she spoke up.

“Erin”, she said, trying to catch the physicist’s gaze and finally succeeding, Erin’s wide eyes meeting hers, “it’s okay. Breathe. You’ll remember, and then you can tell me, but first I need you breathe, okay? In and out, like so.”

She demonstrated, glad when it worked and Erin’s breathing evened out; her racing heart slowed down, as well, and the terror slowly faded from her eyes, Holtzmann giving her an encouraging nod as she rubbed her shoulders some more.

“Good, yes, like that”, she said, “you’re doing great, babe, keep it up. Just like that. Think you can tell me now?”

“The mayor”, Erin mumbled in response, taking in a deep breath before she could continue, “today, when Dr Gorin was here and we were talking, I kept having the feeling I was forgetting something. And now, I dreamed, of when we were back at that dreadful lab, and… one of the dead soldiers, he turned into Mayor Bradley and talked to me, and now I remember what it was.”

Holtzmann gave her a questioning look, still rubbing her shoulders, not letting it show how the mere mention of the laboratory where she had been forced back into being X-19 made her heart clench up; Erin took in another deep breath, then continued, and all Holtzmann could do was stare at her as the full truth of Erin’s words hit home.

“After we’d gotten you out”, the physicist said, voice trembling again, “and were at his office… I picked up something from him, a few snippets of his thoughts. They made no sense back then, but now they do. He… Holtz, he knew. About Jane. He knew everything.”

* * *

“I’m going to slice him up”, Holtzmann growled as she paced up and down in the room, claws out now and glinting in the weak light from the nightstand lamp, even though Erin was quite sure Holtzmann wasn’t even aware they had come out, “I’ll slice him up like a damn salami. How dare he!”

“Holtz, calm down, please”, Erin gave back, knowing that even when she was as highly pissed off as she was right now, she could calm Holtzmann down, “this won’t lead anywhere, especially not right now. We have to confront him about this, yes, but it’s in the middle of the night, you can’t just run off there now and slice him up, as you put it, and you’ll wake up Jane downstairs if you keep pacing like that.”

As if on cue, a knock came from the door, making them both jump; before either of them had the chance to say something, Jane spoke up outside in the hallway, raising her voice to be heard through the wood.

“You already woke up Jane with your pacing”, she let them know, Erin and Holtzmann exchanging a sheepish look, “I got a light sleep and sensitive ears. Is everything okay?”

“Yes”, Holtzmann gave back, sighing as she realized that Erin was right and that she couldn’t just run off now to cut the mayor into little pieces, “you can come in if you want. Sorry for waking you up.”

“It’s okay”, Jane reassured her as she opened the door and entered, “I don’t need as much sleep as a regular human. Like you, I imagine.”

“Uh-huh”, Holtzmann let out, then noticed the way Jane was raising her eyebrow at her claws; she cleared her throat and retracted them, then shrugged, figuring that Jane knew all about having them pop out on accident or without even noticing, at times of high emotional turmoil.

“Anyway”, she said, before Jane could comment on her blades having made an appearance, “Erin had… a nightmare. Or a memory. Or both. Her nightmare woke me up, and then I tried to wake her up, and now we all are awake, what a ding-a-ling.”

“About the mayor”, Jane said, not sounding as if she was guessing, earning a surprised look from both Erin and Holtzmann, and shrugging, sounding a bit defensive when she continued.

“Sensitive ears, remember”, she pointed out, crossing her arms over her chest, “I heard you talk about him. And you didn’t tell me anything new, anyway, I knew he knew about the lab, if I had known this is interesting for you, I would have told you.”

“How do you know?” Erin wanted to know, even though part of her already knew what answer she would get; Jane shrugged again, then cleared her throat, suddenly clearly uncomfortable.

“He was there”, she said, her stilted tone reminded Erin so much of Holtzmann that suddenly, all she wanted to do was hug the teenager, “at the lab. He showed up every now and then to see the progress they were making.”

“Okay, that’s it”, Holtzmann decided, an audible growl in her voice now which showed how angry she was, barely reacting when Erin reached out and started rubbing her back, “he’s getting a visit from us tomorrow. And he better not react the wrong way.”

Erin just nodded, knowing better than to try and talk her out of this; Jane still looked sheepish, but nodded, too, figuring that Holtzmann had every right to be angry, wondering if she’d be allowed to come along or if she would have to stay behind – and not quite sure how she would react, should she meet the mayor face to face.


	7. Chapter 7

In the next morning, Holtzmann still was determined to drop by at the mayor’s office for a surprise visit, and Erin didn’t bother try talking her out of it; Abby and Patty did, once they had arrived and had been told why Holtzmann was so riled up, but didn’t succeed, Holtzmann ending the argument by telling them that they were welcome to come along to make sure she did nothing stupid, but that there was no way in Hell she wouldn’t drop by at the man’s office.

“I’ll stay here with Jane”, Patty volunteered, making Abby nod, her quick agreement prompting Erin to wonder if they both wanted to stay behind to get them out of jail, should Holtzmann decide to attack the mayor, and avoid having all four of them end up there, “she shouldn’t be alone, just in case those army creeps decide they wanna try getting her back.”

“I can take care of myself”, Jane said, sounding indignant, “they can’t even hurt me, if they try to take me back there, I’ll cut them down.”

Her fingers twitched, as if she was struggling to not let her claws slide out; Holtzmann let out a sigh, then shook her head, sounding kind when she replied, Erin feeling somewhat glad when Jane’s fingers stilled in response.

“You might”, the engineer said, “but Abby and Patty can take them out without killing them. Which will be better for all of us in the long run.”

“Fine”, Jane grumbled, “but if they do attack while the two of you are gone, I won’t hold back.”

“No more desk smashing”, Holtzmann said in a strict tone, and Erin managed a wry smile; to the relief of both women, Jane smiled too after a moment, then nodded, and that was good enough for the engineer.

“Alright”, she said, “Erin and me it is then, because I’m pretty sure my sweetheart won’t let me go there alone.”

“Nope”, Erin shook her head at once, “you’ll need my calming, reasonable presence there, especially if he tries to deny it. And we both know that he will deny it, so I’m coming with you.”

Now that this had been decided, Holtzmann didn’t want to waste any further time, eager to get moving; and Erin agreed, wanting to get this done, even though she worried what her girlfriend might do once they would actually arrive at the office.

“Please, love”, she thus said once the two of them were in the car and driving to the mayor’s office, “try to keep your temper in check. For me? We really don’t need the police on our trail for murdering the mayor, on top of all the other things we have to deal with right now.”

“I know”, Holtzmann sighed, keeping her gaze focused on the road as she drove, “apart from Abby and Patty killing me if I do something to the guy, we also have to make sure Jane is gonna be alright, and we can’t do that from prison, or while we’re on the run from the police.”

Erin nodded at once, glad that Holtzmann thought the same way about this as she herself did; still she was nervous by the time the engineer found a parking spot close to the mayor’s office, her palms sweaty when they got out of the car and Holtzmann strode to the entrance, her jaw set now, showing that she was already getting angry.

Hurrying to keep up with her, Erin walked along next to her as they marched past the receptionist, ignoring it when the woman working there called out to them and wanted to know if they had an appointment; Erin felt bad for just ignoring her, but Holtzmann was in no mood to stop and explain, taking the stairs instead of waiting for the elevator, the physicist glad that being a Ghostbuster had done wonders for her constitution and stamina, not even out of breath by the time they reached the mayor’s floor.

Holtzmann practically slammed the door open and strode into the office, as if she had every right to be there; the mayor looked up from his computer, startled, and so did his PA Jennifer Lynch, the woman reacting faster than the mayor himself did, taking one closer look at Holtzmann’s face and immediately moving to block her path.

“Get out of my way”, Holtzmann said, with an audible growl in her voice; Jennifer looked as if she wanted to shrink back, but Erin had to give her props for how she shook her head and stood her ground, not moving a muscle.

“You’re obviously upset about something”, Jennifer said, somehow managing to sound calm and composed, despite the obvious anger which now started to darken Holtzmann’s features, “I don’t know what you are angry about, but I will not let you hurt the mayor.”

“Nobody is going to hurt anyone”, Erin remembered that it was her job to be the voice of reason, “we just need to talk to him. There have been some… interesting developments.”

“You can’t just burst in here like that”, the mayor protested, having gotten up from his seat, but keeping the desk between the women and himself, “whatever it is you need to talk about, make an appointment!”

“You will talk to us now”, Holtzmann shot back, clearly not willing to be sent away so quickly, “no appointments. No excuses. Jennifer, get out of my way.”

“No”, Jennifer replied, unperturbed when Holtzmann’s claws slid out in response, only raising an eyebrow, Erin once again impressed by her calm – she had seen grown men react with pure fear to the sight of those claws, after all, hardened soldiers who had begged for their lives when their bullets had shown no effect.

“And wasn’t there talk of nobody hurting anyone?” Jennifer wanted to know, with a pointed look at Holtzmann’s claws, “what are you planning to do with those, give me a manicure?”

Holtzmann let out a low growl in response, alarming Erin as she knew that this sound never meant anything good; before she could do more than take a step forward though, Jennifer suddenly reached out and grabbed the engineer’s wrist – and her own skin began to change, hardening with an audible crackling noise, the transformation spreading from her fingers to her wrist and up her arm, until it looked as if her whole right arm was made of glittering diamond, Holtzmann freezing at the sight and the sudden inescapable grip on her wrist.

“You can probably cut through this with your claws”, Jennifer said, while Erin gaped at her, as well, she never would have expected the PA to be a mutant, too, “but I suggest you don’t. Pull them back in and we can talk.”

Holtzmann just stared at her for a few more heartbeats, then the claws slid back into her forearms; and the moment they were gone from sight, Jennifer’s skin went back to normal and she let go of the engineer, even managing a smile, Holtzmann raising an eyebrow as she studied her now perfectly regular hand, the red marks her diamond grip had left on the engineer’s skin already fading.

“I never knew you’re a mutant, too”, she then said, making the PA shrug, her smile widening a bit at her response, and both women were glad when Holtzmann smiled back after a moment.

“Not many do”, Jennifer let the engineer know, “and it’s sort of a secret, so please don’t blab about it.”

“We won’t”, Erin reassured her, Holtzmann nodding her agreement – before she remembered why they had come to the office in the first place, and her gaze moved to the mayor, the man starting to look a bit worried when the engineer spoke up again.

“You’re not the only one keeping secrets around here, Jennifer”, Holtzmann said, with a hard look at the mayor, “and, seeing that you’re a mutant, I figure your boss didn’t just keep this particular secret from just us. Unless you’re fine with the army experimenting on mutants, people like you, and don’t care that your boss knew all along.”

“What?!” Jennifer cried out, her reaction so genuine that Erin didn’t need to try reading her mind to see that it was honest; she twirled around and stared at the mayor, and he shook his head, his voice surprisingly steady when he replied.

“I don’t know what this maniac is talking about”, he said, shaking his head for emphasis; Holtzmann let out a low growl, and Erin quickly stepped to her side and placed a calming hand on her back, not wanting the claws to make a reappearance.

“You know very well”, the physicist said, Jennifer staring at her as if she was growing a second head, “you thought about it, after we got Holtzmann back from the army. You shielded enough from me that I didn’t realize it, not back then, but now, with these new… developments, it all makes sense. You stonewalled us when Holtzmann was missing and you knew the whole time where she was!”

“Is this true?!” Jennifer demanded to know, suspicious crackling noises coming from beneath her clothes when she turned to glare at the mayor, making Erin wonder if her power tended to get a life of its own when she was angry, like Holtzmann’s claws, “you knew?!”

“Come on”, Mayor Bradley gave back, sounding nervous though, “you’re not believing these people, are you? Come on Jen, you know me.”

“Yes”, Jennifer replied flatly, looking at him with disdain now, “and I know your schedule. The strange meetings you go to, where I can’t come. The increased number of those meetings ever since Dr Holtzmann vanished. Have you been meeting with the army? Did you know that they had Dr Holtzmann while you told the Ghostbusters you had no idea and couldn’t help them?”

He opened his mouth to reply, but Jennifer shook her head before he could actually say something; and suddenly, she just looked tired, Erin feeling sympathetic for her when she let out a sigh, giving the mayor an unhappy look.

“You know what”, she said, shoulders slumping, “don’t answer that. I don’t care. It’ll be just another one of your lies. I know you’ve lied about many things, to the press and to other politicians, so this will be just one more lie on that pile. I’ve had enough of this. I quit.”

“What?!” the mayor cried out, while Erin and Holtzmann both were surprised, not having expected that at all, “you can’t just quit! Jennifer!”

“I can, and I do”, Jennifer snapped, sounding angry again now, “and don’t forget about all the dirt I have on you. So don’t try to make my future difficult for me.”

Mayor Bradley just stared at her, and she held his gaze for a few moments before she turned and marched out of the office; the door fell close behind her, making him flinch, and he gulped when Holtzmann’s gaze focused on him again, some of her anger back in her eyes.

“Well”, she said, “that was unexpected. Guess you’ll be busy finding a new PA now. Too busy to talk to your army friends and tell them that we know everything about your little conspiracy, right?”

“I don’t know what is going on at your place”, the mayor replied, sounding defensive again, “and I don’t care. If it’s of interest for the army, they will find out anyway, and you know I can’t stop them. I couldn’t have stopped them from what they did to you, either.”

He just had admitted that he had known indeed, that Erin’s nightmare had brought up a true memory and not something which had been part of her dream; Holtzmann gave him another hard look, and Erin rubbed her back soothingly, shaking her head when she saw the engineer’s fingers twitch.

“Come on Holtz”, she said, making the blonde look at her, “let’s just go. He knew, he admitted that he knew, but he can’t do anything, and he just lost his PA and, with her power, possibly his bodyguard.”

Holtzmann let out a vaguely agreeing noise, and Mayor Bradley looked relieved; then, Erin’s gaze focused on him, and he gulped again, the physicist’s eyes as hard and cold as Holtzmann’s, and he realized she hadn’t stopped the blonde from hurting him just because of the simple goodness of her heart.

“Remember what Holtzmann said”, she said, “and keep in mind that we know now. Stay away from us from now on.”

“I can cut your funding”, the mayor gave back, clearly not fully realizing the danger he was in, with two pissed off mutants in the room with him, “or expose you to the world, if you threaten me. I don’t think the people of New York will be happy to hear that their beloved Ghostbusters are mutants.”

The sound of metal scraping over metal as Holtzmann’s claws slid out again was surprisingly loud in the office, and the mayor gulped once again, suddenly unable to look away from the glinting blades; Erin shook her head, her hand still on Holtzmann’s back, and she could feel the muscle there become harder as the engineer tensed.

“You just don’t know when to shut up, do you”, the physicist said, “just keep quiet. And cut the funding, if you want, at this point, we have offers from a whole bunch of universities from all over the country. Come on Holtz, let’s go, he’s not worth it.”

Holtzmann grumbled, but turned and marched to the door; Erin followed her, paused before leaving though and turned back to look at the mayor, the smile she gave him somehow even more terrifying than the glare she had sent his way minutes ago.

“And just so you know”, she said, the man staring at her in silence now, “I can’t guarantee I can hold Holtzmann back like this next time, she does have a temper. So stay away.”

And with that, she left, gently closing the door behind herself, Mayor Bradley starting to sweat even as he was alone now, only now fully realizing how easily this could have gone very wrong for him.


	8. Chapter 8

By the time the couple made it back to the firehouse, Holtzmann had calmed down somewhat, but was still grumpy; Erin didn’t need to read her mind to know that her girlfriend was upset, and tried her best to be a soothing and calming presence, knowing that she could help her calm down just by being there.

“I can’t believe we never noticed Jennifer’s a mutant”, Holtzmann finally broke the silence, just as she parked Ecto-1 in the garage, “she’s really good at hiding it.”

Erin nodded her agreement to that, unbuckling her seatbelt and getting out of the car; she was glad that Holtzmann looked a bit less angry now, smiling at the engineer as they walked to the firehouse’s main area together.

“Her being a mutant convinced me though that she really had no idea of the mayor working with the army”, she commented, making Holtzmann nod, “surely she wouldn’t… have…”

She trailed off as they entered the lobby, her eyes briefly widening – because while she hadn’t been quite sure what to expect, with Abby and Patty looking after Jane, it certainly hadn’t been the teenager sitting on Kevin’s desk, swinging her legs and munching Pringles, while Kevin was excitedly telling her about his latest hide and seek tournament.

“These things are awesome”, Jane said as a greeting upon noticing Holtzmann and Erin, giving them a bright smile, and raising the tube of Pringles, “and Kevin is really good at hide and seek.”

“Okay”, Erin said, shaking her head while Kevin smiled proudly and Jane shoved another chip into her mouth, “now we definitely know you’re sharing DNA with Holtzmann.”

“I would eat nothing but Pringles if Erin let me”, Holtzmann informed her, smirking as well, the last few bits of her anger having puffed away at how happy and relaxed Jane looked, “sadly, she doesn’t. You didn’t eat my whole stash, did you?”

“No fighting if she did”, Erin said strictly, prompting Jane to raise an eyebrow, “and of course I don’t let you eat just Pringles, that’s not healthy. Not even for someone with healing as accelerated as yours.”

“How’d it go with the mayor”, Patty wanted to know as she joined them from the kitchen, handing a mug of tea to Jane, perhaps in an attempt to balance the unhealthy Pringles, “did he admit it?”

“Pretty much”, Holtzmann gave back, with a sigh, “and I think he nearly peed his pants when Erin frightened him into keeping his mouth shut. It was quite the sight.”

“Erin frightened him?” Patty commented, raising an eyebrow while Jane noisily slurped from the mug, not bothered by the still steaming hot tea, “I would’ve thought you’d be the one to scare him, waving your claws at him.”

“Erin can be very frightening”, Holtzmann solemnly told her, Jane raising an eyebrow, clearly sceptical about this assessment, “if she wants to be. I think her death glare and smile of doom impressed him more than my metal babies did.”

“Damn, I wish I could have seen this”, Patty said with a little laugh, making Holtzmann smirk again while Erin blushed and shrugged, looking a bit sheepish, the emotions which had prompted her to glare at the mayor like this clearly gone at this point.

“He deserved it”, she then said, a bit defensive even though she knew nobody was judging her for scaring the man, “stonewalling us like that when Holtz was missing, he knew all along the army had her. Oh, and turns out that Jennifer is a mutant, too.”

“What!” Patty squawked at hearing this, eyes going wide, while Jane looked just confused, not having an idea who Jennifer was and why the fact that she was a mutant was such a surprise, “Jennifer?! No way! Abby, come here, you need to hear this!”

Abby appeared in a puff of blue and black smoke at once, curious, while Jane jumped, not as used to the researcher’s teleport as her friends were; she gave Patty a curious look, and the historian repeated what Holtzmann and Erin just had revealed, Abby gaping at her as well in response.

“No way!” she then cried out, shaking her head, “how did we never notice anything?! What sort of power is it?”

“Some kind of skin-changing”, Holtzmann told them, both of them gaping at her now, to her barely hidden amusement, “it looked and felt like diamonds when she had my wrist in a death-grip. She said something about how I might be able to cut through it with my claws, but man, I do not want to get punched by her when her fist is like that.”

“We could take her”, Jane replied confidently, shrugging at the look Patty shot her, making both Holtzmann and Erin wonder if “taking people” had been a topic of discussion while they had been gone, “what? It’s true. If X… Holtzmann and I team up, we can take anybody.”

“Well, yes”, Holtzmann had to admit, knowing that it was true, and shrugging as well when Patty’s _look_ moved on to her, “we probably could. But we’re not going to fight her, Jane, she’s done nothing wrong. She didn’t know.”

“I didn’t need to read her mind to see that she had no idea”, Erin added, feeling bad for the PA again, “you could just see it in her face when we confronted the mayor. And she quit then and there so…”

“Aw, the poor girl”, Patty showed sympathy, Abby nodding her agreement, “that must have been quite the shock for her, finding out that her boss has been working with people doing these dreadful experiments on mutants.”

“She certainly wasn’t happy”, Holtzmann commented, “and seeing that she’s a mutant, too, I agree with Erin, she had no idea. She would have told us if she’d known when they… had me again.”

Erin nodded at that, briefly touching Holtzmann’s back, silently reassuring her that this horrible time of her life was over and that she wouldn’t go back there again; the engineer gave her a short smile, then moved to where Jane was still eating Pringles, reaching into the tube and grabbing a few of them for herself.

“But enough of the mayor and his idiocy”, she declared, making Erin smile, “what have you guys been up to while we were gone?”

“Not much”, Patty gave back, reminding Jane of the tea she had made by pushing the cup into her hands, “turns out Jane loves Pringles as much as you do. And soup nearly as much as Abby. That girl can eat, I’ve never seen such a tiny little thing put such amounts of food away.”

“I like food”, Jane shrugged, earning a grin from Holtzmann as the engineer understood this quite well, “and the stuff I got the lab wasn’t very tasty. So now I wanna taste everything.”

“We order a lot of take-out, so you’ll get that chance”, Erin smiled, earning a happy grin from the teenager; and then, when Holtzmann declared that she would go upstairs to the lab and get some work done, Jane jumped up in excitement, startling the engineer with her sudden enthusiasm.

“Can I come?” she demanded to know, looking quite excited, “please? I want to see how all this Ghostbusting stuff works, Patty told me so much about the equipment!”

“Sure”, Holtzmann gave back, earning another happy smile; they made their way upstairs together while Erin moved to the living room desk, using that for her work until her new one would be delivered, grimacing as she thought of the threat the mayor had made about their funding, forced to realize that perhaps, replacing equipment wouldn’t be as easy in the future as it was right now.

Noticing her look, Abby asked her what was wrong, earning a sigh and a shrug from the physicist, followed by an unhappy look Erin gave her as she responded.

“Let’s put it this way”, she said, “the mayor wasn’t happy about us finding out about what he did, and about Jennifer quitting because of it, so he threatened to cut our funding. I don’t know if he’ll do it, and I told him that we have a bunch of universities willing to fund us, but you know as well as I do that getting such funds can take time, so if he does cut our funding, we might be in for tough times.”

“Nah”, Abby gave back, “it’s gonna be fine, we’ll figure something out. We’re four very smart women after all. Five, if Jane got some of Holtzy’s brainpower too and not just her claws and healing.”

“What about me?” Kevin wanted to know, pouting, but smiling again before they had the chance to reply, “oh, I know, I’m not a woman!”

“Yes”, Erin said, while Abby snickered, “that’s it Kevin, you’re not a woman. You’re… smart in your own way.”

Kevin beamed at her, then went back to whatever he had been doing before Jane had started chatting with him; and the three women went back to their tasks, as well, while Holtzmann and Jane worked upstairs, all of them feeling good and confident about themselves and their work, despite the troubles with the mayor which still might loom on the horizon.


	9. Chapter 9

During the next few days, a new routine was found at the firehouse; Holtzmann and Erin stayed there with Jane so she wouldn’t be alone, they had breakfast together, then Jane helped Holtzmann with her daily work – as it turned out, she was a natural at building things, just like Holtzmann herself – and stayed behind with Kevin whenever the four women had to head out on a bust.

They came back from such a bust one time to find Jane standing in the middle of the lobby and sniffing audibly, to the confusion of the four women; upon inquiry about what she was doing, she informed them that she was helping Kevin train for hide and seek, and that she had been looking for him for ten minutes already, unable to find him.

“So now I try to smell him”, she explained, as if it was the most natural thing in the world – and to her, they had to realize, it probably was, “luckily he uses a rather strong cologne.”

“Luckily indeed”, Holtzmann commented, the only one who could truly get what she was talking about; Jane beamed at her, then sniffed again before she got moving, the four women watching her go, amused now, and glad that she was having an obvious good time at the firehouse.

“I’m glad she seems so balanced and happy now”, Erin commented as they moved to the wall they kept their packs on and hung hers up on the hook, Holtzmann and Abby doing the same before Holtzmann took Patty’s pack from her, said pack having gotten slimed quite badly during the bust and the engineer wanting to check it before she’d deem it fit to be used again.

“I’ll take this upstairs right away”, she let the other three know, once again demonstrating her boundless energy; Erin let out a noise which was between agreement and nod, having dropped down onto the couch, exhausted after chasing a ghost for hours, despite of the positive effect all the ghostbusting had had on her physical fitness and stamina.

“This is so unfair”, she grumbled, running one hand through her sweaty hair, feeling drained after how long it had taken to catch the ghost – not only had it chased them up and down through an apartment building, but also had been good at hiding, having forced them all to be on alert practically constantly, the three women now tired physically and mentally after the hours they had needed to finally catch the apparition.

“She could do this all day, every day, for a month and not be tired”, she added, groaning again, “sometimes I’m jealous of her healing.”

“Me too, baby girl, me too”, Patty reassured her, grimacing as she already could tell she’d have sore muscles in the next morning, something Holtzmann never had experienced; Abby just let out an unarticulated, but agreeing noise in response, then the three women just sat there, trying to regain some energy while Holtzmann practically hopped up the stairs, not feeling tired the slightest.

She carried the pack to her workbench and carefully lowered it down onto it, not wanting to damage it further by dropping it; before she could start checking it though, she noticed movement from the corner of her eye, from near the containment unit, and she froze, her eyes narrowing as she turned to take a closer look, suspecting some kind of intruder, a frown creasing her brow when she saw who it was.

Jane was standing in front of the containment unit, not moving a muscle; Holtzmann couldn’t see her face from where she was standing, but her whole body seemed oddly slack, and it made the engineer feel uneasy, even though she couldn’t quite put her finger on why.

“Jane?” she said, taking a slow step closer to her, suddenly worried that the teenager might snap and attack her again, “I don’t think Kevin is hiding in there.”

She took another step closer, just close enough to hear how Jane mumbled something under her breath, her voice oddly flat and emotionless; her frown deepened as she wasn’t sure if she had heard the teenager right, but it had sounded like “so many”, and suddenly, she felt deeply uneasy, wondering if she should call out for the others, just in case.

_What if one of them got out and possessed her,_ the engineer thought to herself, grimacing at the mere thought, all too aware of what had happened the last time a ghost had possessed her, and with Jane and her having the same powers, she doubted it would end any better if Jane was the possessed one, _I should get Patty up here just to make sure._

She opened her mouth to do so, and just then, Jane turned to face and smiled brightly at her; and just for a second, Holtzmann was sure that she smelled something, something which should alarm her and make her worry, but the feeling faded as Jane kept beaming at her, suddenly not appearing slack at all anymore.

“I thought I’d smelled him here”, she said, Holtzmann smiling back at her, “guess my nose tricked me. I didn’t touch anything, I swear.”

“No worries”, Holtzmann gave back, Jane smiling happily at her again before she moved past her to continue her search for Kevin; and she walked past Holtzmann, she briefly touched her hand, and when the engineer went back to her workbench, she didn’t even realize that the whole brief scene was gone from her mind.

* * *

 

“Holtz”, Erin’s voice calling up to her from the ground floor distracted her from her work quite a while later, the proton pack having taken more damage than she initially had thought, cleaning and maintenance of the pack taking more time than expected, “Dr Gorin’s on the phone for you!”

“Coming”, Holtzmann called back, quickly making sure that nothing could go poof if she’d stop working on the pack before she slid down the pole; Jane was on the couch with Abby, she noticed, the two of them watching X-Files, and she grinned at them was she walked to Kevin’s desk, Erin smiling at her as well when she handed her the phone.

“Hi Dr Gorin”, Holtzmann greeted her mentor, “what’s shakin?”

“I’m shaking my head, at you greeting me like this”, Dr Gorin replied dryly, making Holtzmann snicker, “apart from that, I got some news about your new friend.”

“Ooh”, Holtzmann let out, “your friend got into those files then? What did they find out?”

“Quite a bit”, Gorin let her know, coming straight to the point, never having been one for beating around the bush, “as we suspected, Jane and you share quite a bit of DNA. She’s not an exact clone, she would look more like you if she was, but they did use some of your DNA when they… created her. There was some very unsettling information in these files, about how they had her grow faster so she’d reach her age in mere months, instead of waiting years for her to become a teenager.”

“Sickos”, Holtzmann mumbled, feeling sick at the thought of someone doing this to another human being, practically forcing them to grow up faster just so she could be used in strange experiments; she looked at Jane, at the way the teenager laughed at something Abby had said, and her heart cramped up as she realized how many years the government had effectively stolen from her.

“A fitting assessment”, Gorin agreed, “she’s most likely aware of what has been done to her, so I suggest you don’t bring it up unless she does so first. She probably already figured out the DNA thing, like the four of you did.”

“She has”, Holtzmann confirmed, “and yeah, I’m not gonna say anything. Thanks for finding out and thanks for calling.”

“No problem”, Gorin said, her voice growing kinder as she continued, “and call me in case you need anything or anything… happens. Alright? The army has not tried to get her back yet?”

“No”, Holtzmann gave back, frowning a bit as she realized that this was quite weird, “now that you say it, that seems a bit odd. Unless they didn’t figure out yet where she went.”

“Well, if they don’t know that she’s aware of your existence, they might truly not know where she went”, Gorin pointed out, and Holtzmann had to admit that this was a good point – after all, all the people who had been at the lab where they had experimented on her for a second time were dead, and she doubted that Jane had been dumb enough to actually point out that she had seen X-19 when she had been in the tank for her procedure.

“Good point”, Holtzmann said out loud, “and I’d prefer it if it remains that way, we do not need army guys here again. Last time was stressful enough.”

Gorin made an agreeing noise, then told her once again to call in case they needed anything; Holtzmann thanked her again, too, then ended the call, Erin moving over to her and giving her a questioning look.

“Dr Gorin confirmed what we already knew”, Holtzmann told her, holding back a sigh, not wanting to talk about what else she had been told as long as Jane was within earshot, “they used my DNA to make Jane… who she is. So I guess we are related, sort of? And she told me… other things, which I will tell you later, in private.”

Erin didn’t question this, but simply nodded, giving the engineer a smile she hoped was reassuring before she kissed her gently; and then, they went to join Abby and Jane on the couch and watch X-Files with them, Holtzmann uncharacteristically quiet during the show, thinking about what Dr Gorin had told her and unable to stop wondering why the army hadn’t tried so far to get Jane back, suddenly doubting that it was as simple as the government having no idea where she was, but not quite sure what the reason for this lack of activity could be.


	10. Chapter 10

Erin was curious about what else Dr Gorin had told Holtzmann, but kept her questions to herself until they had retreated to their upstairs bedroom; Jane was already asleep on the couch, and so, Holtzmann felt it was safe to tell Erin, sitting behind her to give her a backrub as she spoke, still keeping her voice low, well aware of how sensitive Jane’s ears were.

“So Dr Gorin confirmed that they used my DNA”, she said, fingers working on tense muscles and forcing Erin to bite back a groan, the physicist just as aware of Jane’s excellent hearing as Holtzmann was, “which was nothing new. But… her contact found something else out, too.”

She momentarily paused to sort her thoughts, and focused on the massage as she tried to find the right words; knowing that this was what she was doing, Erin kept quiet, even though she was dying to know at this point, and had to use quite the bit of willpower to not simply look into Holtzmann’s mind to find out.

“They… made her grow up faster, somehow”, Holtzmann finally continued, the physicist stilling at this revelation, the good things the backrub had been making her feel suddenly forgotten, “they wouldn’t even let her have a proper childhood. Instead, they accelerated her to her teenage years, somehow, so they could do their procedure and have their killing machine faster. Efficient, huh?”

Her voice was bitter at the last two words, and Erin felt her heart clench up, not just with sympathy for Jane, but for Holtzmann too; and so, she interrupted the backrub by turning on the bed so that she was facing her girlfriend and grasping her hand, running her thumb over the skin between her knuckles in an almost subconscious gesture, knowing that this always calmed Holtzmann down, even more when she did it than the engineer herself.

“She’s out of there now though”, Erin reminded her, making her smile weakly, “and she has all of us now to help her. They took a lot from her, but she’s out of there.”

“Yes”, Holtzmann agreed, even managing a weak smile, “thanks to how quickly you guys were willing to take her in. Thank you for that, and I’ll have to tell this to Abby and Patty, too.”

“Nothing to thank us for”, Erin told her, “come on, we never would have just kicked her out to the curb or something.”

“I know”, Holtzmann gave back, then shrugged, “but still. Not everyone would have opened their home to someone so quickly, you know? Now turn back around so I can finish that backrub, you still have a lot of tension in your shoulders.”

“I always do”, Erin grumbled, did as her girlfriend had asked though; Holtzmann smirked at her back, then started massaging her again, and she had to hold back content groans once more, enjoying the feeling of the engineer’s strong hands working on the tense muscles immensely.

“This feels so good”, she sighed after a while, careful to keep her voice low, “you’re so good at this.”

“Happy to hear”, Holtzmann mumbled, smiling as Erin finally did let out a low sigh, unable to hold back any longer; the engineer kept massaging her shoulders and back until the tension was mostly gone, Erin slumping back against her and into her embrace a boneless heap once she stopped and pulled back.

“Thank you”, the physicist sighed, while Holtzmann snickered at the way Erin just had flopped into her arms, “I feel so much better now.”

“Happy to hear”, Holtzmann smiled, “you should sleep very well now, then.”

Erin nodded, then forced herself to sit up again – so she could turn on the bed again, face Holtzmann and kiss her gently, her hand coming up to cup the other woman’s jaw as the kiss deepened, and once again she was forced back to hold back a groan, the backrub not only having relaxed her, but having giving her other feelings, as well.

“Careful”, Holtzmann said, with a distinctive growl in her voice, when Erin pulled back again, “or you’ll get me all worked up. And we probably should keep it PG-13, there’s a teenager sleeping on the couch downstairs… a teenager with very sensitive ears.”

“I know”, Erin sighed, a bit regretful now, a hint of mischief in her eyes and voice though when she continued, “perhaps, we should ask Abby and Patty to spend the night tomorrow. So we can have some… private time.”

“Good idea”, the engineer grinned, making Erin smile as well; they kissed again, then finally laid down to sleep, Erin snuggling to Holtzmann and quickly drifting off into dreamland, feeling happy and content as the engineer held her close.

If they had known what would happen just a few hours later, they would have made more of the time they’d had together.

* * *

When Holtzmann woke up hours later, in the middle of the night, she had no idea at first why she had woken up, blinking in the dark bedroom as her eyes got used to the darkness, feeling a bit disoriented.

Erin was slumbering peacefully next to her, she noticed, so whatever had woken her up hadn’t been loud enough to wake Erin, too; and then, she heard it again, and sat up straight, the hissing and clanging sounds from the lab not exactly familiar, but still she knew what they meant.

Hurriedly, she got out of bed, the skin between her knuckles itching as she snuck out of the room; she thought about waking Erin for a moment, then decided against it, wanting to find out first what was going on before she might endanger her by bringing her into a potentially lethal situation.

She moved soundlessly from the bedroom to the lab’s main area, holding back the urge to let her claws pop out; by now, her eyes were as used to the dark as they could get, and she easily spotted the slim figure standing in front of the containment unit, pulling levers and pushing buttons.

“Jane”, Holtzmann snapped, her temper flaring as she could see perfectly well what the teenager was going for, “what are you doing?!”

Jane turned her head to look at her, and Holtzmann recoiled as if she had been slapped as she saw the bright blue glow in her eyes, the same odd light shining from her mouth when she smiled, and the smell of ionization was so strong all at once that it made Holtzmann’s eyes water.

“You can tell perfectly well what I am doing”, Jane said, her voice not just her own, but oddly doubled, as if two people were speaking at once, “you built this after all. And you know what this does.”

And with the final word, she pulled another lever, and the containment unit hissed and steamed as it opened, Holtzmann’s eyes going wide, her claws popping out on pure instinct now even though she knew they wouldn’t do anything against the ghosts they’d had locked up in there, not without her modified gloves.

She heard Jane laugh, but could barely see her anymore, the room filling with ghosts unsettlingly fast, some of the apparitions cackling at glee at being freed, others just enjoying the new-found freedom in silence as they flew this way and that; Jane was watching them with a look of dark satisfaction on her face, while Holtzmann’s mind raced as she tried to figure out what to do, tried to calculate a path through the mass of ghosts to one of her workbenches, the one where several proton grenades laid ready to use.

“Holtz?” she heard Erin from the hallway, the physicist sounding sleepy, but worried, “what’s going on?”

“Get downstairs”, Holtzmann gave back, while Jane cocked her head and smiled, the creepy blue glow growing stronger, “and get the packs and your shotgun, now!”

“I think not”, Jane commented, and even through the haze of sleepiness, Erin heard the duality of her voice, her eyes going wide as she was wide awake from one second to the next; she turned, ready to run downstairs, and from the corner of her eye, Holtzmann saw Jane’s smile widen – before she made a vague, almost casual gesture, and all the ghosts stilled, turning their heads toward the doorway in frightening synchronicity.

For a second, they all just stared, Holtzmann staring back at them while Erin was moving towards the stairs; and then, all the ghosts shot forward at once, past the engineer, through the wall and ceiling, Holtzmann realizing just a second too late whom they were going for.

“No!” she cried out as the first one reached Erin and vanished within her, the physicist coming to a sudden halt at the invasion; and the others followed suit, one after the other, and all Holtzmann could do was watch helplessly, knowing there was nothing she could do to stop them, not without her modified gloves, not without risking hurting Erin.

The last ghost, she saw, came from Jane herself, rising from her in a blue mist, the teenager collapsing, ending up motionless on the floor, and Holtzmann had a second to wonder how long it had been hiding in there, how much it had seen and knew now.

Then, this ghost moved to join the others in the possession, laughing at her as it swiped past her towards Erin, the redhead standing stock-still in the dark hallway; Holtzmann recognized the voice as the one she had heard together with Jane’s minutes ago, then the ghost vanished inside Erin, and the physicist turned to face her, Holtzmann nearly taking a step back at the blue glow which shone from her eyes now.

“Erin”, she said, then fell silent, having to realize that she didn’t even know if Erin could actually hear her; they had done studies on possession, with the limited knowledge they had, but they never had bothered to find out what might happen if an individual got possessed by more than one ghost, if it was even possible.

Now Erin was possessed by dozens, and the cruel smile she gave the engineer showed that, if she was still in there somewhere, she was not in control.

“Jillian”, the physicist replied, the many voices she spoke with now making her skin crawl; still she took a step closer, not quite sure what she would do, but knowing she had to do _something_ , telling herself that she could knock Erin unconscious if she had to.

Erin raised one hand, and Holtzmann found herself unable to move, the ease with which the physicist held her in place showing how much the ghosts were increasing her powers; and then, her feet slowly left the floor as Erin _lifted her_ , giving her another cruel smile as Holtzmann hung helplessly in the air, unable to move a muscle.

“Go to sleep”, Erin said almost gently – before she clenched her raised hand into a tight fist, and Holtzmann couldn’t even scream at the sudden burning pain in her chest, in her heart, the last thing she saw before she blacked out being Erin lowering her hand and turning to walk away.


	11. Chapter 11

The moment Holtzmann opened her eyes, she remembered everything which had happened, not even given a few seconds of bliss during which she could pretend that everything was okay; she still laid in the hallway where Erin had left her after destroying her heart – _not Erin, that wasn’t Erin, Erin didn’t do that to you_ – and when she turned her head a bit, she saw Jane lifeless on the floor in front of the now empty containment unit, showing that she hadn’t been out for long.

She had a moment to entertain the thought that perhaps, she had been out for such a short time that she still could catch up to Erin, then had to realize that this was foolish – even if she’d somehow guess the direction the redhead had taken, all it would take was one simple gesture for Erin to take her out again, and she’d only waste time going after her.

Not sure what to do now, she came to her feet, figuring that calling Abby and Patty would be a good start, and perhaps Dr Gorin, maybe her mentor could help them figure out where Erin had gone; before she could do more than stand up though, Jane groaned and stirred, and suddenly, Holtzmann’s temper flared, even though part of her knew it hadn’t been Jane’s fault, not after how she had seen the ghost leave her.

Her anger was bigger than that small rational part though, and she let out a low growl as she got moving, Jane just having a second to turn her head and look at her – then Holtzmann had grabbed her by the collar, hauled her to her feet and slammed her against the containment unit, bringing up her free hand, the teenager going still when the engineer’s claws slid out and pressed against the sides of her throat, even though she knew Holtzmann couldn’t do any lasting damage to her.

“I didn’t know”, Jane said, working hard to keep her voice calm and reasonable, not quite sure she’d be able to get through to Holtzmann the way she had seen Erin do it, “I swear, I had no idea, I’m sorry…”

Her voice cracked as she lost her composure, a few tears escaping and rolling down her cheeks; and those did what her calmness hadn’t managed, Holtzmann’s grip on her loosening before she pulled her claws back in and took a step back, still looking angry, but not as murderously pissed anymore as she had been.

“You didn’t know”, Holtzmann repeated, and Jane shook her head, wiping at her eyes, struggling to stop the flow of tears – crying was a weakness, she had been taught, and she was a weapon, weapons weren’t supposed to show weakness.

“I didn’t”, she said, holding Holtzmann’s gaze, showing that she was sincere, “if I had known, I would have done something, would have said something, I swear…”

She fell silent, wiping at her eyes again in an oddly child-like gesture, and that was what made Holtzmann believe her fully; her anger faded as she saw Jane not as the killing machine she had been made to be, but as a scared teenager who had been used for this, like the army had been planning to use her.

“Okay”, she said, taking in a deep breath to get rid of the last few bits of anger which were left, “fine, alright. I believe you. We don’t know much about possession, but we know enough, that ghost could have been hiding inside you the whole time…”

She thought back to when she had seen Jane at the containment unit earlier that day, and nearly smacked herself at how easily the ghost within the teenager had played her, had made her forget her suspicions immediately and had let her believe that nothing was wrong; she wondered for a moment how this had been accomplished, then shrugged it off for now, telling herself they had other things to worry about.

“I’m sorry”, Jane said again, sounding as if she was still on the verge of tears; and even though all Holtzmann wanted to do was to rush downstairs and call the others, she took the time to step forward and hug her, the teenager clinging to her immediately, showing how badly she needed that gesture.

“It’s okay”, the engineer mumbled, rubbing her back a bit when she felt her tremble in her arms, “it’s okay, we’ll figure out what to do, it’s all going to be okay.”

She hoped that she wasn’t just saying empty phrases, and that it truly would all be okay… because right now, she had no idea where to start, and no idea how to get Erin back, the thought of losing her forever making her heart clench up painfully.

* * *

“So here is what we know”, Holtzmann said a short while later, in the firehouse’s lobby now, with Abby, Patty and Jane; the other two Ghostbusters had come as fast as they’d been able to after Holtzmann’s call, wide awake now that they had been given a rough summary of what had happened, frightened for Erin and of the things the army might do to the physicist.

“There was a ghost inside Jane, probably the whole time since she left the lab”, Holtzmann said, Jane looking ashamed, but not protesting, and looking grateful when Abby reached out and placed one hand on her arm in quiet reassurance that it wasn’t her fault, “I’m thinking that our army friends… planted it there before her escape.”

“If it was an escape at all”, Patty said, sounding thoughtful as she frowned, “it all adds up, doesn’t it? They put the ghost inside her without her knowing, they _let_ her escape, she comes here, maybe even guided by that ghost. The ghost uses her to find out how our equipment works, to set the ghosts free, and take control of Erin…”

“God”, Holtzmann groaned, letting her head drop into her hands, “this scheme is just crazy and convoluted enough that I can see their mad scientists come up with it. The same people who decided it would be a good idea to cover a person’s skeleton in metal.”

“But why Erin”, Jane wanted to know, frowning, “wouldn’t they want to get you back? You were their first successful project, if they’d gotten both of us back… The ghost could have made me go with you, then we couldn’t have done anything.”

“Because Erin has more potential than you or I could ever have”, Holtzmann flatly replied, earning a look of disbelief from Jane, which prompted her to elaborate, “yeah, we’re hard to kill, maybe even impossible to kill. Our wounds heal fast but… if those ghosts juice up Erin’s power enough, she’ll be so strong, nobody is even gonna have the chance to wound her in the first place. How do you shoot someone who destroys bullets with a thought?”

“What a mess”, Abby groaned, shaking her head, feeling helpless and hating it, “we have to figure out what to do, and figure it out quickly. Jane, can you get us back to that lab?”

“Yes”, Jane replied at once, to the obvious relief of the three women, “I remember where it was.”

“Good”, Holtzmann said, coming to her feet, “let’s gear up then, they have a whole shitload of ghosts at their lab now, planned or not. We better be prepared.”

The others nodded and got up as well, and for a moment Jane looked lost, clearly not sure if she would be included in the group; then, Holtzmann looked at her, and Jane prepared for being told that she had to stay behind once she’d taken them to the lab, that she couldn’t be trusted enough to come with them after what had happened.

“Take Erin’s pack”, Holtzmann said instead, surprising her so much that she could only blink, “and her shotgun, I only have one pair of proton gloves, but with the gun, you’ll at least have a weapon against the ghosts.”

All Jane could do was nod, getting up from her seat as well and following the Ghostbusters to where they kept their gear; Erin was a bit taller than Jane herself, so she had to adjust the straps on the pack, not missing the brief look of hurt on Holtzmann’s face when she did so.

She wished that she’d find the words to make Holtzmann feel better, but had no idea what to say, not having been taught these things by the army; and so, she remained quiet as she strapped the shotgun to her thigh, then walked to the garage with the others, taking the backseat with Abby while Patty rode shotgun and Holtzmann drove, none of them speaking as the engineer manoeuvred the car out onto the road, the silence only broken when Jane told her where to go, all four women tense at the fight which would await them.

* * *

At first, Erin had screamed.

It had been all she’d been able to do, when the ghosts had possessed her, not just one, but so many of them; and then, the final one had joined them and had taken over, and now, she had been forced into a backseat in her own mind, able to see and hear, but unable to do anything else, control of her body fully in the hands of this ghost, a man whose power had been so like hers when he had been alive, but who had used it so differently, to harm and hurt.

He had walked her body through New York, not caring that she was in her pyjamas, and despite her fear and panic, she tried to memorize the route, telling herself that she had to know, and that Holtzmann and the others would come rescue her, if she knew where to go, maybe she’d find a way to send it to them.

_Don’t bother_ , the ghost reacted to her thoughts, sardonically amused, _you know what I did to your beloved girl. You think she’ll recover from that?_

_She will,_ Erin shot back, with more conviction than she felt – she had been powerless to stop it when the ghost had done it, had squished Holtzmann’s heart like an overripe tomato, but she knew how good Holtzmann’s healing was, and quietly hoped that it could deal with something like this, too.

She refused to speak more to the ghost controlling her, remaining quiet and just watching how he walked, until they reached a non-descript office building; he went in there, only to be stopped by soldiers with guns, aiming them at her as they demanded to know who she was and what she was doing.

“I’m here for the Weapon X program, you dolts”, he said in her voice, having enough control at this point to avoid letting all the voices join hers, “it’s me, Raymond. Passcode Project Empty Nest.”

They stepped aside at this, and let him pass; he walked to the elevator and rode up to the top floor, and there, people were already waiting when the doors opened, a man in a general’s uniform and men in lab coats, the general frowning as he took in Erin’s body.

“This is neither X-19, nor X-21”, he pointed out, crossing his arms over his chest, “what is this?”

“It’s something way better”, the ghost replied, letting out a snicker which was so unlike Erin’s normal laughter that it made her feel sick, “let me explain and you’ll love it. I brought you the perfect weapon, general.”


	12. Chapter 12

Holtzmann parked the car at a safe distance to the building where Jane had told her the lab was, not wanting the rather flashy Ecto-1 to be seen from afar; she killed the engine, but, to the surprise of everyone else in the car, didn’t get out immediately, taking in a deep breath instead.

“Alright”, she then said, staring at her hands, “this will be violent, so I suggest you let Jane and me go first. We can take bullets and not die. And… that’s not the first time we’ll stab actual people, so we might have less troubles doing so than the two of you.”

“It’s the people who hurt Jane and you and now have Erin”, Abby pointed out, “I might feel bad about hurting them, or worse, but I’ll do it if I have to.”

Patty nodded her agreement, and Holtzmann gave a brief, tense nod; then, she pushed the door open and got out of the car, the others following suit, Holtzmann taking in another controlled breath as they started walking.

“I guess we can’t just burst in through the front door”, Patty commented, and Jane shook her head, then let know that there was a back entrance; it would be guarded, she warned them, but if they were quick enough, the guard wouldn’t have a chance to call out to them.

“I can help with that”, Abby said, “just tell me which one of you two wants to take him out.”

“I know how to open the door”, Jane said, “without making much noise. It’s made of steel, so yes, Holtzmann, cutting it open would make much noise.”

“Jane it is, then”, Holtzmann sighed, making Jane smile a bit; then, she gestured at them to stop, safely hidden behind decorative shrubbery, Abby peering over the green leaves just long enough to get a good view of the door and the guard, not wanting to accidentally teleport Jane and herself into a wall.

“Ready?” she then whispered to Jane, making the girl nod; she took hold of her shoulder, not wanting to accidentally be in her way, and used her power to teleport them both, landing them right in front of the soldier, the man just having time to let his eyes go wide – before Jane clenched her fist and punched him straight in the face, and he crumpled, out cold before he had the chance to make a noise.

“If I’d been on my own, I would have killed him”, Jane said, startling Abby with her casual tone while she dug through the man’s pockets until she found what appeared to be a keycard, “but I guess you guys will be happier if I don’t slice people up.”

“Might still end up having to kill some of them”, Holtzmann commented as Patty and she came out of cover to join the other two, “I really don’t want to, don’t get me wrong, but they might not leave us a choice.”

“Let’s try to keep the body count down to a minimum though”, Patty suggested, making both Holtzmann and Jane nod, “just so we’ll have something we can use in our favour in case this ever comes back to bite us in the ass.”

“It’s a small base”, Jane let them know as she used the keycard to open the back door, “not many soldiers here, and they all know each other. So the old stealing-a-uniform trick won’t work, they’d recognize us all immediately.”

“Figures”, Holtzmann mumbled, moving to walk beside her as she led the way, just in case some soldiers would jump out of a hiding place and start firing at them, “would have been too easy, too. And possibly clichéd.”

“That, too”, Abby solemnly replied, glad when Holtzmann glanced back at her to give her a small smile; Jane shushed them a moment later though, clearly in no mood for banter, brow furrowing in concentration as she led them down the narrow hallway.

“The lab is up on the highest floor”, she whispered, fingers twitching, “we should probably use the stairs, less noticeable.”

Holtzmann nodded her agreement, figuring that Jane knew what she was doing – this was what she had been made for after all, infiltrating enemy locations and fighting said enemies, even if the army probably hadn’t expected her to infiltrate their base one day.

_Or maybe they did_ , Holtzmann thought back to Patty’s theory while Jane opened the door leading to the stairway, _maybe they’re waiting for us up there, guns aimed at the door and ready._

She couldn’t find it within herself to care though, knowing that she could easily shrug off anything the army could throw at her; she had taken bullets before and they barely had slowed her down, and she knew that it was the same for Jane.

Still she was relieved when nobody shouted out an alarm as they walked up the stairs, Jane and she leading, Abby and Patty a few feet behind them; she felt tense as they snuck up the stairs, not sure what to expect, and afraid of what state they might find Erin in.

If the redhead was here, she hadn’t been here for long, Holtzmann knew… but she hadn’t been long at the underground lab at MIT, either, and during that short time, the army had done more than enough to her, had changed her body forever.

“Almost there”, Jane whispered after they had walked up the stairs for quite a while, “next floor is the top floor. Most soldiers will be there, so please be careful.”

Abby and Patty made vaguely agreeing noises, then they had reached the top floor and Jane pushed the door open, her free hand clenching into a fist, ready to let her claws pop out and fight; the hallway behind the door was just as empty as the stairwell had been though, and she frowned, not having expected this lack of activity.

“I don’t like this”, Holtzmann grumbled, glancing around nervously, “where is everyone?”

As if on cue, one of the doors up ahead opened, and a man stepped out, Holtzmann knowing enough about the army and their uniforms still to recognize his as a general’s; he smiled at them, clearly not frightened the slightest, even sounding a bit amused when he responded.

“We knew you would come here when Dr Gilbert showed up”, he let the four know, clasping his hands behind his back, looking as relaxed as he might have at some sort of formal dinner, “so we sent all the low level soldiers to another base. No need to have them sacrifice their lives against two indestructible mutants, is there?”

“Where’s Erin”, Holtzmann demanded to know, taking a step forward, not even fully noticing how she clenched her fists; Jane did the same next to her, while Abby and Patty remained behind them, figuring that the two were better suited for physical combat – even if Patty could drain people quickly, she could get hurt in the time that took, and none of them wanted to take that risk.

“Dr Gilbert is busy”, the general replied, unimpressed when Holtzmann grit her teeth, “and I have to say, X-21, I’m disappointed, finding you here like this, with these women.”

“My name is Jane”, Jane snarled in response, her claws sliding out as her temper took over, “don’t you ever call me that again!”

“Have you never wondered”, the general gave back, “why you are 21? And Dr Holtzmann is X-19? You never wondered about 20?”

“No”, Jane told him, even though she faltered a bit now, and from how he smiled, the general had noticed, a sardonic glint in his eyes now as he continued.

“No? I think you just lied to me”, he said, shaking his head, “but nevermind that. You know, you, Dr Holtzmann, were our first truly successful try at the project. Jane was the second. X-20, he… hm, let’s say his physique developed fine, but his brain has always been a bit slow on the uptake. I imagine he’ll be more than capable about taking care of you four, though.”

He looked into the room he had come from and snapped “release him!”, Holtzmann reacting by having her claws pop out, as well; they could all hear a sort of metallic rattle come from the room – and then a man came rushing out into the hallway, his movements closer to a gorilla than a human, eyes glaring around before they settled on Holtzmann and Jane.

They had a second to realize how much his face resembled both of them, looking like what Holtzmann might have looked like, had she been born male… and then, he popped out his own set of claws, roared and shot towards them, a proud smile on the general’s face as he watched him attack.


	13. Chapter 13

“Get out of sight!” Holtzmann still had time to yell at Abby and Patty, then X-20 went into a crouch and launched himself forward, arms outstretched, claws glinting; more out of reflex than conscious thought, Holtzmann shoved Jane aside while Abby and Patty hurried back to the relative safety of the stairwell, and X-20 collided with her, ramming his claws into her chest, the impact enough to throw her on her back.

She yelped in pain, X-20 snarling as he twisted his hands, and the blades still buried in her flesh; this made her scream again, but this time, her cry mixed with the yell Jane let out – as she jumped the man, landed on his back and stabbed him just like he had stabbed Holtzmann, prompting him to throw his head back and roar in pain.

He reared up in an attempt to get rid of her, the movement pulling his claws from the engineer’s body; the wounds closed up quickly, and Holtzmann came back to her feet even before the healing had finished, letting out a yell of her own as she shot forward, ramming her own blades into his stomach.

Neither of them noticed the general retreat, the man all too aware that this fight might not have the outcome he wanted; roaring again, X-20 turned and slammed his body backwards, pinning Jane between himself and the wall, while he slashed at Holtzmann, the engineer flinching back at the last possible second, avoiding his claws cutting her stomach open.

She ducked when he tried to punch her, and his claws slammed into the wall instead of her head, cutting into the stone with ease; he let out an unarticulated growl, and despite the dangerous situation, Holtzmann found herself wondering if he was actually able to talk, or if they had taken that from him, the way they had taken it from her with the chip.

He snarled at her as he pulled his fist back, a cloud of dust puffing from the holes he had left in the wall; Holtzmann jumped back to avoid another slash, and when he took a step forward to follow her, Jane took the chance given and retracted her claws, then dropped to the floor and cut at his feet, slicing through his Achilles tendons, a noise which was both angry and surprised coming from him when he toppled over and hit the floor.

“His head!” Jane called out, slicing at his legs again to keep the wounds from closing, “we have to destroy his brain or he’ll just keep on healing!”

Holtzmann felt sick to her stomach at what she had to do, but knew that they didn’t truly have a choice – the man was barely more than a raging animal, and wouldn’t stop until either he or the two of them were dead, just as it had been ordered by his general, and with no way to subdue him, there was no other option than killing him.

Briefly she thought about calling out to Patty, have her drain him, but then had to realize that this would only delay the problem – because he’d recover from being drained, unless Patty took it all and killed him, and she’d rather have his blood on her own hands than have Patty live with the guilt.

And so, she took in a deep breath, then mumbled “I’m sorry” to the growling man – before she rammed her claws into his head, the mutant twitching once, his eyes widening, an odd gurgling noise coming from him.

He feebly brought his hand up, trying to cut her, but couldn’t find the energy to do so anymore; making sure that the damage couldn’t be healed, Holtzmann kept her blades where they were, until his hand slumped back down, and he twitched again, then laid still, a thin line of blood trickling from his ear.

Still Holtzmann waited another ten seconds, just to be on the safe side, before she pulled her hand back at last, feeling sick again at the sound of metal scraping over metal; Jane opened her mouth to say something, but before she could, Holtzmann turned away and threw up, sudden tears blurring her eyes as she fully realized what she had done.

“We had no choice”, Jane told her, moving to her side to rub her back, clearly concerned for her, “you know we didn’t, he couldn’t be reasoned with, he never would have stopped.”

“I know”, Holtzmann gave back once she could be sure there wouldn’t be any more vomiting, “I know that. Still doesn’t make me feel better.”

She wiped at her mouth and grimaced, wishing for a bottle of water to get the taste out of her mouth; looking a bit helpless, Jane shrugged, watching how Holtzmann wiped the blood off her claws before she retracted them.

“It’s what we do, you know”, she finally said, not quite sure that this was the right thing to say, but feeling she had to say something, part of her registering Abby and Patty peering back into the hallway, then moving to join them, “it’s what they made us for.”

“Maybe”, Holtzmann replied, with a small sigh at the dead man, his body by now having been still and lifeless long enough to convince her he wasn’t coming back, “but we don’t have to be what they made us.”

The slow, sarcastic clapping from the door the general had used earlier kept Jane from saying anything, and they both looked to the source of the sound; Holtzmann’s mouth went dry and she could actually feel her heart skip a bit as Erin stood there, wearing a uniform now instead of the pyjama she’d had on when the ghost had left the firehouse with her body, her hair pulled back in a loose ponytail, the blue glow still shining from her eyes, showing that nothing about her state had changed.

“A touching and somewhat philosophical sentiment”, she said, in her own voice, but Holtzmann knew it wasn’t her who was speaking, “and I have to say, I’m impressed by how you took care of X-20 here, too. Didn’t think you had it in you.”

“Get out of Erin, coward, and face us”, Holtzmann snarled in reply, the sardonic smile he gave her with Erin’s lips making her skin crawl, “or are you too afraid to do that? You gonna squish my heart again instead?”

“That would be inefficient”, the ghost replied, still with that awful smile, “you standing here in front of me and yelling at me proves how little good that did. I have a better idea, though.”

Erin’s eyes narrowed, the blue glow intensifying, and Holtzmann found herself unable to move again; and then, to her horror, the claws of her right hand slowly slid out, she could feel the pain, but couldn’t stop it, having lost all control of her muscles, something the ghost who was using Erin’s power to do this to her demonstrated with ease as he made her lift her arm.

“Too bad X-20’s brain isn’t the only one which will be destroyed today”, the ghost within Erin said, eyes glinting cruelly, “and such a smart brain, too. But we got your DNA, we can make another one.”

“No!” Jane cried out as she realized what the ghost was about to make Holtzmann do to herself; she had the chance to take one step forward, then the ghost froze her in place, too, cruel smirk widening when the teenager let out an angry growl at her sudden inability to move.

“You’ll be next”, he then promised her, the movement of Holtzmann’s claws towards her brain momentarily having stopped; then, the glowing blue gaze focused on the engineer again, and her hand jerked as she fought back with all her might, telling herself that she could do this, that she could break this mental hold the ghost had on her.

Then the blue glow flickered, just for a second, but long enough to let Holtzmann notice.

“Erin!” she cried out, hoping that she could get through to her, knowing this was probably her only chance, “Erin, I know you’re in there, I _know_ it! Fight! You’re strong enough, fight!”

The glow flickered again, longer this time, long enough to give Holtzmann hope… before it intensified, became a white shining so bright that Holtzmann had to look away, a strong breeze coming up out of nowhere, and when Erin’s hair danced in said breeze, blue sparks flew from the tips, the four women standing frozen at the sight.

“What the Hell”, they heard the general say from somewhere inside the room next to Erin; the physicist turned her head to look at him, and when she spoke, it was her voice and her words, but still Holtzmann felt goosebumps form on her skin, at how flat and emotionless her girlfriend sounded.

“Hell is a good description for what I will cause here”, Erin said, the breeze increasing and turning into strong wind, “this has been going on long enough. It is time to end this.”

And then, true to her word, she made all Hell break loose.


	14. Chapter 14

Erin started by rising from the floor, levitating with a frightening ease.

She should have hit the ceiling after seconds, but instead, the stone above her broke away, falling down into the hallway as the roof was ripped open; Holtzmann and Jane were fortunate enough to be able to move again just in time, jumping back just in time, slabs of concrete with little bits of metal poking out here and there landing where they had been standing moments ago.

“Oh Jesus no”, they heard Patty say behind them, at a safe distance to the falling bits of building; and still Erin kept rising, making it look as easy as walking down a hallway, her power moving her effortlessly, more blue sparks flying from her hair as it escaped the ponytail and danced in the wind.

It was oddly beautiful, Holtzmann thought to herself, standing mesmerized, unable to do anything but stare; she had known that Erin had power, a lot of it, had never truly tapped into the whole potential, but she never would have expected _this._

From the corner of her eye, she saw the general fumble for his weapon, yank it free, a simple handgun, and she already knew it would be useless even before he pulled the trigger, three times in quick succession.

Erin turned her head again, just a fraction, and the bullets vanished before they could even get close to her… and the general vanished, too, there one second and gone the next, not even able to scream as the full extent of her power hit him.

“Erin!” Holtzmann called out, raising her voice to be heard over the raging storm the soft breeze had become at this point, “Erin, it’s okay now, please stop it, please!”

Erin looked at her, and just for a second, she allowed herself to hope… before a flicker of blue showed in her eyes, just a tiny bit, but enough, the ghost getting enough control back for a fraction of a second to do damage.

The burst of power which hit her had the same source as the one which had simply removed the general from existence, less strength behind it, but still enough; she yelped in pain as bits and pieces of her skin and the flesh beneath vanished, she could hear Jane gasp when a glint of silver showed through the gaps torn into her body, but didn’t look away, not for a second.

“Erin!” she called out again, the damage healing almost as quickly as it had been done, Holtzmann ignoring the pain as she took a step closer, then another one, “you can control him, I know you can! All of them!”

The response she got was swift and immediately, another flicker of blue breaking through the white as another blast of raw power hit her; she grit her teeth against the pain, bringing up her arms to shield her face at least, and the sleeves of her coveralls were obliterated along with the flesh beneath, allowing her an all too good look at the silver within her before the damaged flesh was restored.

She took another step forward, the storm actively working against her now, trying to push her back; she wasn’t quite sure if it was Erin doing this to protect her or the ghost within her to hurt her, but she didn’t let it stop her either way, not even when she had to start climbing chunks of concrete to get closer.

“Erin!” she tried again, and the wind suddenly became so strong that she had to pop out her claws and ram them into the concrete beneath her feet to keep herself from being blown off; that gave the ghost a free shot at her face though, and he took it, Holtzmann crying out in pain when the power hit and did damage, squeezing her eyes shut in an attempt to protect them.

“Foolish woman”, the ghost snarled, in his own voice now, the blue flickering stronger, as the engineer struggled another step closer and another one, “what do you hope to accomplish with that? You want to die for nothing, is that it?”

“Not for nothing”, Holtzmann gave back, letting out another pained yelp as the power hit her again, taking bits and pieces away again only for her healing to make them grow back at once, “I would, for her. But I won’t have to. _Now!”_

Too late, the ghost realized what Holtzmann had been doing, how she had been distracting him – as Abby and Patty vanished in the blink of an eye and reappeared behind Erin, and Patty grabbed her face with both hands, not holding back the slightest as she unleashed all of her power at the physicist.

Erin screamed, in his voice at first, then in many, the blue glow taking over her eyes again for the longest second Holtzmann ever had experienced… and then, the ghosts were forced out of her, one after the other, and Jane was ready with the shotgun, firing as fast as she could, hitting as many as possible.

The second the last ghost had been forced out of the physicist, the blue glow vanished from her eyes, and the white was gone, too; Patty let go of her, and her knees buckled, but Holtzmann was there to catch her, grabbing her before she could fall and holding her close, a shudder running through her body as she realized what a close call this had been.

“Thank you”, Erin whispered, reaching up to touch Holtzmann’s face, the last few remnants of the energy which had controlled her showing as weak blue sparks stuttering and dying on her fingertips before she actually touched the engineer; and then, her hand fell back down as her eyes closed, the last thing she heard before darkness swallowed her up being Holtzmann crying out her name one final time.

* * *

“She’s going to be okay, right?” Jane asked quite a while later, sounding worried; Holtzmann shrugged in response, not taking her eyes off of Erin for a second, the physicist lying motionless in bed, only the slow rise and fall of her chest showing that she was alive.

She hadn’t woken up since collapsing back at the building, and Holtzmann tried to not let her concerns drive her into panic; this was getting  more difficult which each minute going by though and Erin’s state didn’t change, the redhead out cold, not reacting when someone said her name or touched her.

“I hope so”, the engineer finally said, taking tender hold of Erin’s hand again, just needing to feel the warmth of her skin as a quiet reassurance that she was alive, “but I don’t know. Using such amounts of her powers, who knows what it might have done to her brain…”

She trailed off and swallowed heavily, suddenly feeling like crying – not even twenty-four hours ago, she realized, she had given Erin a backrub in this very bed, and they both had been relaxed and happy, and now her girlfriend was unconscious, perhaps even comatose, and she had no idea if Erin actually would ever wake up again.

“Maybe we should take her to the hospital”, Jane suggested, with another worried look at the physicist’s lifeless form, “so they can check her…?”

“And tell them what”, Holtzmann wanted to know, unable to keep a hint of bitterness out of her voice, “that she got possessed by a bunch of ghosts which multiplied her mutant powers and that might have hurt her brain? Nobody knows we’re mutants. And nobody’s supposed to know, because regular humans tend to react… unfriendly.”

Jane gave her an unhappy look, clearly out of ideas now; and so, she just moved to stand next to Holtzmann, and put her hand on the engineer’s shoulder, trying to give her some comfort, Holtzmann giving her a brief and grateful look before her gaze moved back to Erin, watching closely for every single breath.

She wondered what she would do if Erin wouldn’t come back to her, unable to keep these dark thoughts at bay, not even the presence of Jane and her friends helping much against these fears.


	15. Chapter 15

Holtzmann had fallen asleep at some point during the night, sitting next to the bed and holding on to Erin’s hand; and since her worries kept her from going into truly deep sleep, she woke at once when she felt Erin’s fingers squeeze hers.

“Erin?” she said, her eyes quickly adjusting to the dark, allowing her to see that the physicist’s eyes were open; she didn’t allow herself to get her hopes up yet though, worried that Erin might be not fully there yet, relief blooming though when Erin’s eyes met hers, and were perfectly clear and aware.

“Hey”, she said, squeezing the older woman’s hand gently and smiling at her, “you’re back. How’re you feeling?”

“Tired”, Erin mumbled, “and my head hurts… are you okay? I remember you getting hurt…”

“I’m fine”, Holtzmann reassured her, giving her another smile, “no worries, it takes more than a few blasts of psychic power to take me down. I’m glad you’re awake. Do you need anything? Something to drink, a painkiller…?”

“I’m not sure painkillers will help with this sort of headache”, Erin gave back, grimacing as talking only made said headache worse, “can you just… stay here with me? Hold me?”

Holtzmann nodded at once and moved to lie down next to her; Erin had confirmed that she hadn’t been at a backseat of her mind the whole time, and she wondered if she could remember other things, too… if she remembered how she had taken the general apart, not quite sure how to ask.

“I killed him”, Erin whispered once she had gotten comfortable in Holtzmann’s embrace, answering the unasked question, “didn’t I.”

“Yes”, Holtzmann decided that honesty was the best way to go, her heart clenching up when she felt Erin shudder in her embrace, “you had to. He left you no choice.”

Erin didn’t respond, but Holtzmann felt her shudder again – before hot liquid dripped down onto her throat, her heart breaking all over again when she realized what it was.

She didn’t tell her that it was okay, knowing that such phrases wouldn’t help; instead, she just held Erin close, and rubbed her back as she cried, trying her best to give her the comfort she so obviously needed.

* * *

At some point, Erin had fallen asleep again, too exhausted to stay awake for long; Holtzmann had been awake a bit longer before she had allowed herself to fall asleep, too, quietly hoping that they would both have the chance for some proper rest, knowing that Erin needed it much more than she herself did.

The long sleep she had been hoping for wasn’t granted though, as she woke to shouting and yelling early in the morning, and judging from how Erin was stirring in her arms, it had been loud enough to wake the redhead up, too.

“What’s going on”, Erin mumbled sleepily while Holtzmann frowned, for some reason quite sure that these noises meant nothing good; she took a moment to pull her closer and reassuringly rub her back, trying her best to sound calm and composed when she responded, and to not let her sudden worries show through her voice.

“I’m not sure”, she let the physicist know, “I’ll go check.”

She got out of bed, Erin sitting up and watching her, but making no move to follow her – and when Holtzmann reached the window and peered outside, she was quite glad that Erin hadn’t joined her, feeling her temper flare at the bunch of protesters standing outside, waving signs and yelling.

_No Mutant Ghostbusters_ , one of them read, making her blood boil; another one said _Mutants get out,_ and a third one had the words _No Freaks in NYC_ , the engineer holding back an angry growl as she didn’t want to alarm Erin.

“What is it”, Erin wanted to know from the bed, sounding a bit worried too now; Holtzmann figured they were chanting anti-mutant slogans, but thankfully, they couldn’t quite be heard up at the second floor, her heart sinking though when she realized that she had no chance to keep this from Erin forever.

“Protesters”, she thus said with an unhappy sigh, turning back to look at Erin again, “um… anti-mutant.”

“This is my fault, isn’t it”, Erin replied tonelessly, Holtzmann moving back bed and sitting down on the edge, putting one arm around her shoulders and pulling her close, “someone must have seen what… what I did. I wasn’t exactly subtle.”

“Probably”, Holtzmann gave back, knowing that lying to her would only make it worse, but still eager to soften the blow, “but honestly, it was just a matter of time. I’m surprised this hasn’t happened earlier, what with my habit to use my claws with the proton gloves.”

Erin just looked down on the blanket in response, playing with a loose thread, the nervous fidgeting as she did so showing that she was upset and uncomfortable; eager to make her feel better, Holtzmann gently kissed her cheek, then suggested that they should ignore the people outside for now and see if they could find some breakfast downstairs.

“Or I can bring you some”, she added, rubbing Erin’s upper arm and shoulder tenderly, “if you don’t feel like getting out of bed yet.”

“No, I’ll come downstairs with you”, Erin gave back, “I have to get out of bed sooner or later, and the sleep helped with my headache…”

Nodding, Holtzmann got up again, remained close to the bed though, ready to catch Erin, should her legs not carry her; the physicist was a bit wobbly on her feet, didn’t fall though, giving the engineer a grateful look when she put one arm around her waist to support her.

Together, they made their way downstairs, Holtzmann for once not using the pole; and there, Abby, Patty and Jane all sat at the kitchen table, looking as worried about the protesters as Erin and Holtzmann were feeling, Erin unable to hold back another flash of guilt at the dismay she could see on the faces of her friends.

“I’m sorry”, she blurted out before any of them could say something, “if I hadn’t… gone crazy like that yesterday… These people wouldn’t be here now, nobody would know…”

“It’s not your fault”, Abby replied at once, Patty and Jane nodding along, making her wonder if they had discussed this already before she had come downstairs with Holtzmann, “honestly, I’m surprised it hasn’t happened sooner. We never tried too hard to hide our powers.”

As if on cue, the chanting outside grew louder – before other, new voices could be heard, in a different chant, surprising all five women once they could make out the words this new group was saying.

“Humans or mutant, we don’t care”, they were chanting, the women exchanging surprised looks, not having expected this, “fans of the Ghostbusters everywhere!”

“Huh”, Holtzmann let out, Erin looking as surprised as she was feeling, “guess we have fans?”

She moved to the window and peered outside, Erin almost joining her, then deciding against it – because if somehow, the people protesting them knew what she had done, and she didn’t want them to spot her, not just yet, not quite sure which ideas they might get.

She remembered an incident from college, when one of their fellow students had been outed as mutant, not even with a very dangerous power, just able to basically create harmless fireworks; the boy had been there one day and gone the next, and no one had ever given an explanation what had happened to him, but they all had known he hadn’t just packed his things and left.

After that, she always had made sure that nobody found out she was a mutant, and when she had started working at Columbia, letting anyone know hadn’t been an option anymore anyway – nobody had said it openly, but the university was firmly anti-mutant, as they had demonstrated when they had fired a professor after it had become known that he was a mutant, too.

And now, people knew, Erin realized with her blood running cold, they knew and had come to protest, and suddenly, she was just sure that this would end in violence sooner or later.

“It’s a bunch of humans and mutants”, Holtzmann let them know from her spot at the window, neither the protesters, nor their supporters having noticed them yet, “well, at least our supporters look like a mixed batch, but it might as well be mutants where it isn’t obvious. Ha! They have signs too, and one of them says _Hot for Holtz_ , I think this person misunderstood the idea behind the support.”

Erin raised an eyebrow at that, but didn’t comment – it was nothing new that Holtzmann had many fans, especially among a certain demographic, and while she had been jealous at first whenever a fangirl had swooned at the sight of the engineer, she didn’t care much anymore now, knowing that Holtzmann loved her.

“We better go out there and calm things down”, Abby suggested, “before these guys actually start fighting. I doubt the mayor would be happy if we have protesters vs. supporters Hunger Games going on out there.”

“I bet on the mutants”, Holtzmann quipped, glad when this earned a small smile from Erin, “but yeah, you’re right, the mayor’s unhappy with us as it is, no need to increase that even further.”

“Maybe I should stay here”, Erin suggested, worried, “if they’re here because of me, seeing me might… set them off.”

Holtzmann grimaced, but didn’t argue back, knowing that Erin had made a good point; and so, she just nodded, Jane offering to stay with the physicist so she wouldn’t be alone, and after Erin had nodded her grateful agreement to that, Holtzmann, Abby and Patty made their way to the front door, eager to put an end to the conflict before it could escalate.


	16. Chapter 16

“Hey!” Abby bellowed, raising her voice to be heard over the shouting of the protesters and the voices of the supporters, “everyone! Enough of this!”

The supporters cheered in response, and the part of Holtzmann which still remembered her military training noticed with cold calculation that they outnumbered the protesters, and with a few obvious and maybe a few hidden mutants among them, they probably had an advantage as well.

Holtzmann didn’t want things to escalate, but it did feel good to know that the odds were on their side.

“It’s the freaks!” one of the protesters yelled, pointing at the Ghostbusters as if he had to make sure everyone knew whom he meant, “I bet all four of you are freaks, not just the two dykes!”

Holtzmann raised an eyebrow at the insult, but said nothing, even though the skin between her knuckles itched; Abby’s face darkened, but she ignored the man too, knowing better than to get into a discussion with him.

Instead, she opened her mouth to try and reason with the people, and just then, a rock roughly the size of a large man’s fist came flying out of the knot of protesters, sailing past her and hitting Holtzmann on the head, right above her eye, the engineer staggering as the skin split and blood flowed.

“Hey!” Patty bellowed while Erin gasped from where she was watching and Jane grit her teeth; Holtzmann had a second to blink blood out of her eyes, then the cut closed, and the protesters fell silent at once, all of them glaring at her as if they could kill her with their looks alone.

“I suggest you don’t do that again”, Holtzmann said, her carefully controlled tone prompting Patty to give her a warning look, “I have a short temper, and having rocks thrown at me only makes it shorter.”

She felt the skin between her knuckles itch again, but fought the urge to have her claws pop out, knowing that would only make it worse; thankfully, no more rocks were thrown, but the protesters kept staring at them balefully, and Holtzmann could tell that they were close to violence, even more so now after they had seen her mutation close the wound so quickly.

“Leave”, Abby snapped, angry too at the unprovoked and unnecessary attack, “before we call the police.”

“The police won’t help you, mutant scum”, one of the protesters yelled, the others agreeing loudly, the supporters now glaring at the group, and Holtzmann’s intuition that violence would happen all too soon only grew, “they help good human citizens, not freaks like you!”

“Enough”, a familiar voice rose over the grumbles of protesters and supporters alike, the three Ghostbusters gaping as they hadn’t expected this new development the slightest, “from all of you. The Ghostbusters are a government funded business, you will treat them as such and will leave.”

“Jennifer”, Abby said, then fell silent, too surprised to add anything; Jennifer gave her a small, tight smile, and her mere presence was enough to calm things down, the protesters mumbling to each other about how this was the mayor’s PA, the news that she actually wasn’t anymore clearly not having made it to the public yet.

“Fine”, one of them said at last, “we’re leaving. But we know now. This isn’t over.”

“Get moving”, Holtzmann snarled, temper briefly flaring; Jennifer gave her a warning look, and she once again fought the urge to let her claws slide out, something which was made easier by the protesters walking off one by one, the supporters doing to too after a moment, a few of them calling out encouragement for the Ghostbusters and pro-mutant slogans as they left.

“Thank you”, Abby said once they all were out of earshot, along with a grateful look at Jennifer, “this could have gotten ugly if you hadn’t shown up. How did you know?”

“I didn’t”, Jennifer gave back, making her raise her eyebrows, “not until I came here and saw them. I was afraid of this though when I saw the reason for my visit. Let’s go inside, then I can show you.”

The Ghostbusters let out vague noises of agreement, then led the way into the firehouse, Jennifer following them inside, all of them curious what the former PA would show them and if she had any ideas about stopping the protesters from showing up again.

* * *

“Whatever you did last night, please don’t do it again”, Jennifer said as she set up her laptop, with a pointed look at Erin, the physicist looking uncomfortable in response, the younger woman’s words not helping with her guilt; Holtzmann grumbled and gave Jennifer a hard look, the former PA skilfully ignoring this though.

“And if you have to”, she continued while clicking through her various folders and sub-folders, “make it less flashy.”

She pushed a button, and a video player opened, making them all think back to the first time she had played a video for them; this time, there was no sound though, and the picture was dark and grainy, but it showed enough.

Whoever had been filming had started doing so shortly after Erin had destroyed the office building’s roof and had risen through the hole she had created; she was shown all too clear, floating in the air, hair dancing in the wind and her eyes glowing white.

And Holtzmann could be seen too, they quickly realized as they saw the smaller figure struggle to get closer to Erin; the video stopped shortly after Holtzmann had taken the first blast from Erin’s power, and so, the display of power from both Abby and Patty wasn’t on it, the screen shaking when the filming person at first ran, then going black when they either switched the camera off or dropped it.

“Don’t ask”, Holtzmann said as Jennifer closed the program and opened her mouth, probably having been planning to do just that, “long story. And it’s not gonna happen again.”

“I hope so”, Jennifer replied dryly, once again ignoring the look this earned her from Holtzmann, “this has caused enough of an uproar as it is. Whoever filmed this uploaded it to YouTube and it has quite the number of views already.”

“Of course it does”, Abby sighed, while Erin frowned, feeling bad again about what she had done; taking note of how her features darkened, Holtzmann reached over and placed one hand on the other woman’s back, quietly telling her it wasn’t her fault when Erin looked at her.

“That does look an awful look like Dr Gilbert to me, though”, Jennifer pointed out, realizing that this hadn’t been the smartest thing to say when Holtzmann and Jane both glared at her, the engineer moving one hand to rub the skin between the knuckles of the other, a clear sign that she was upset or angry.

“You don’t know what happened”, Patty pointed out, while now, it was Erin’s turn to put her hand on the engineer’s arm, knowing that the last thing they needed now was Holtzmann pinning Jennifer to the wall with her claws, “so I suggest you don’t judge. As Holtzmann said, it’s a long story, and it won’t happen again.”

“I’d ask for the whole story”, Jennifer replied, still in that dry tone which made Holtzmann’s hands itch, “but I guess we have other things to worry about now. Lucky for you though, you know a skilled PA who is in need of a job. So, if you’ll have me, I’ll do damage control on this, press releases, everything which is necessary.”

The four Ghostbusters exchanged looks at this, knowing that it was a good idea – Patty was good when it came to speaking with the press, but she was no expert like Jennifer, and with nobody but them and the mayor knowing that Jennifer was a mutant, too, having a person who appeared like a regular human on their side certainly couldn’t help, either.

“Alright”, Abby was the one to answer, “you’re hired. We can’t pay you much though, I hope you’re aware of that. Especially if the mayor does cut our funding.”

“He won’t”, Jennifer gave back at once, making them look at her curiously, their expressions prompting her to shrug, a slight smirk curling Holtzmann’s lips when she continued.

“I still have contacts in the office, you know”, she pointed out, “they keep me updated, without Bradley knowing, of course. He has no real plans to cut your funding, not even after this mess with the video, the danger that ghost incidents cause an uproar is bigger than his need to be petty after your visit at his office.”

“Lucky us”, Holtzmann dryly commented, making Jennifer smile and nod; then, with her new employment with the Ghostbusters having been more or less settled, she started outlining her ideas to handle what had happened, the Ghostbusters and Jane listening closely, nodding along as her ideas were good, all five of them feeling a bit better about the whole situation now that there was someone to help them with it.


	17. Chapter 17

Once Jennifer had formulated a battle plan and the Ghostbusters had agreed to her ideas, she got to work immediately; and when that had been taken care of, Erin excused herself and made her way upstairs, Holtzmann following her after a moment, having seen the dark expression on her face and not wanting to leave her alone with her pain.

Upstairs at the lab, Erin stopped at one of the windows and looked outside, not glancing back at Holtzmann when the engineer stopped a few feet away; a few moments ticked by in silence, then Holtzmann spoke up, somewhat glad when Erin did turn to look at her at the sound of her voice.

“I can give you some time alone if you want”, she offered, glad again when immediately, Erin shook her head; she gave the physicist a small smile and moved to stand next to her, placing one hand on her back, and Erin immediately leaned into the touch, her gaze moving to the window again though, looking at the street down below.

“I know you said he left me no choice”, she broke the silence after a while, “but… I can’t stop thinking of it. The look on his face just before I killed him… and it was so… so easy. I didn’t even need to try very hard. I just thought about him disintegrating, and he was gone.”

She swallowed heavily, but Holtzmann could tell she had more to say, and didn’t speak up; and after a few moments, Erin did continue, the engineer’s heart clenching up at her words.

“I know you’re right when you tell me that I had no choice”, Erin let her know, sounding as if she was close to tears now, “he would have killed us all if he’d had the chance. Or would have done God knows what to us in that damned lab, we know they have no scruples, after what they did to Jane and to you. But… It was _so easy_ , Holtz, and that scares me, because what if this happens again? What if I get possessed like this again and kill innocent people? I hurt you so much when I was… like that, every time I close my eyes I see it, how the skin just… vanished…”

“We’ll figure something out so that can’t happen again”, Holtzmann reassured her, not quite sure yet what they could figure out to avoid possession, but telling herself that there had to be something they could do, “and yeah, what that ghost used your powers for against me, that hurt. Not for long though, you know I heal fast, and even more important than that, it wasn’t you who did this to me. It wasn’t you who hurt me.”

Erin just sniffled in response, losing the fight against her tears; and immediately, Holtzmann hugged her and pulled her close, showing her with the gesture that she had meant every word she just had said, the physicist slumping against her and burying her face in her shoulder as she started to cry.

“It wasn’t you”, Holtzmann repeated, rubbing her back soothingly as she trembled in her arms, “it wasn’t your fault. And it changes nothing, I love you, I love you so much, you’re my everything Erin, no matter what.”

For a while, Erin just held on to her tighter in reply, and kept crying; after a while, her flow of tears lessened though, and she stopped trembling, raising her head again after a while to meet Holtzmann’s eyes, the engineer giving her a hopefully calming and reassuring smile the moment their gazes met.

“Thank you”, Erin mumbled, while Holtzmann reached up with one hand to gently wipe away the last few tears which were trickling down the redhead’s cheeks, “I’m sorry for how I hurt you. And I love you, too… I was afraid you wouldn’t want to be with me anymore, after what I did…”

“I’m yours”, Holtzmann told her at once, glad when Erin managed a weak smile, “for as long as you’ll have me.”

Erin smiled a bit wider in response, and nodded; Holtzmann took a moment to smile back at her, then kissed her gently, hoping that she truly had found the right words and that Erin believed her, knowing that the physicist would need this belief for her mental scars to heal.

* * *

For the rest of the day, the Ghostbusters took it easy, while Jennifer worked more on her concept; Holtzmann gave her best to make Erin feel better, making sure she had everything she needed and never moving far away from her, ready to be there with open arms for a hug whenever Erin looked as if she might need one.

Abby and Patty also made sure to show Erin that no one was blaming her for what had happened, neither for what she had done at the government lab, nor for the aftermath, the lack of blame from her colleagues and closest friends making it a bit easier for the redhead to deal with had happened.

If Jennifer blamed her, she kept it to herself, and from what Erin saw from her work, she was approaching the whole topic from a different angle; despite the questionable quality of the video, it would be of no use to deny that the Ghostbusters were mutants, and so, Jennifer suggested that they should openly admit it instead, and put the focus on how much good they all had done for the city.

“People need to be reminded of the fact that you saved New York, perhaps the world”, Jennifer pointed out, making them all nod, “you’ve been doing this for a while now, and public attention has moved somewhere else. We have to remind them that, without your four mutants, we would be living in a wasteland filled with ghosts now, and that Rowan would use us all as his chew toys whenever he has a bad day.”

The four women agreed to this, Jane just listening curiously, not having much of an idea what Jennifer was talking about; the PA smiled at them all, then continued talking, and Holtzmann’s gaze darkened a bit at what she was saying.

“We should also move the focus from what you did at this government lab to what the government lab has been doing to you”, Jennifer said, gesturing at Jane and the engineer, “we know that the army doesn’t exactly see mutants as humans, but many do not agree with this, and if we point out what the army was doing to mutants at this building, it might lead to some understanding for what happened. This can only work if you both agree to it, though.”

“I don’t like that idea much”, Holtzmann grumbled, not surprising any of her friends, “but I guess you got a point. Jane? What do you say?”

Jane started at this, not quite used yet to being asked about her opinion; she looked a bit lost for a moment, then shrugged, sounding slightly helpless when she responded.

“I don’t know”, she admitted, and Erin forgot all about her own pain for a moment at the look on the teenager’s face, “I’m… not used to making such decisions. Or many decisions at all. I’ll go along with whatever you decide, Holtz.”

“I know you’re right, Jennifer”, Holtzmann sighed after a few moments, running one hand through her hair before she briefly touched her pendant, signs the others knew well, and signs which prompted Erin to put one hand on her back, “but… I’m not a big fan of that idea. Yeah, people should know what they did, but if they already are hating on us and see that the government turned breakable bone claws into indestructible knives, that might backfire.”

“It might”, Jennifer nodded, knowing as well as anyone else in the room that this was true, “but I don’t believe it will. You have many fans, all four of you, but, and I mean no offense with this, you have the most, Holtzmann. Even people who are shocked or maybe angry now that you are a mutant will be sympathetic if they find out that you were experiment on against your will. You were a teenager when this happened, no?”

“Yes”, Holtzmann confirmed, Erin rubbing her back soothingly as she could feel the engineer tense up again, “when I was nineteen. But I’m not going to give them all the creepy details, alright? They don’t need to know that.”

“There won’t be a need to give many details”, Jennifer reassured her, the engineer relaxing a bit in response – before the PA continued, and Holtzmann frowned, not quite liking what she was hearing.

“I do have an idea”, she said, “for both Jane and you. Hear me out before you try to slice me up.”

She started to explain, and even though Holtzmann’s frown deepened, she listened, having to admit that it was a good idea, despite the dismay Jennifer’s words caused her; Jane didn’t look all too happy either, but didn’t protest, and once Jennifer had finished, they both agreed to her plan, to her obvious gladness, the PA promising she would set everything in motion as fast as possible.


	18. Chapter 18

A few days later, everything was ready and prepared, and Jennifer officially announced a press conference to discuss “the status of the beloved group known as Ghostbusters”, letting the interested journalists and public know that it would be held in the next afternoon, in front of the firehouse.

During said days, the protests at the firehouse had died down, the number of protesters dwindling more with each day; Erin, Abby and Patty still had to stop Holtzmann and Jane from going out there whenever the slogans became particularly hateful, but thankfully, the three women managed to calm the other two down each time, and nobody got hurt, the protesters usually losing interest after an hour or two of protesting with no response and leaving.

They all were nervous by the day of the press conference, Holtzmann barely able to do any work; she gave up after causing the third poof in just as many minutes and got rid of her excess energy by working out instead, Erin watching her with unabashed enjoyment, earning a raised eyebrow from Jane which made her blush.

Thankfully, the teenager held back any snarky comments she might have had about this though, just shaking her head to herself; and finally, the time of the press conference was close, and Jennifer arrived at the firehouse, armed with her laptop, letting the Ghostbusters know that friends of hers were setting up outside already.

“Not much”, she calmed them down at the questioning looks she received, “just a little stage and a whiteboard. Are you guys ready? Holtzmann, Jane?”

“I guess so”, Holtzmann sighed, exchanging an unhappy look with Jane, “as ready as I can be for something like this.”

Jennifer gave her a surprisingly kind smile, then nodded and let them know she would lead the way; they had all put on their Ghostbuster coveralls at her request, complete with gloves, but not with proton packs, and Jennifer reminded them to look harmless and nice before she gathered her notes and left the firehouse.

The Ghostbusters followed her, impressed at how well the little stage had been put together in such a short amount of time; a whole bunch of people was waiting already, many with notepads and cameras, but a few who had nothing to do with journalism, as well, filming with their cell phones as the six women entered the stage.

“Thank you all for coming”, Jennifer greeted them, the Ghostbusters nodding in agreement, the PA having instructed them to hold back at first, “I’m Jennifer Lynch, and these are the Ghostbusters, as I’m sure you all know. And yes, before you ask, all four of them are mutants.”

She had dropped that bomb boldly enough to earn several gasps, even though the proof for what she just had said was out there, on the internet; still the journalists reacted as if this was the greatest bit of news they had heard all day, cameras flashing as they started yelling questions.

“No questions yet!” Jennifer said, raising her voice to be heard, “there will be time for questions afterwards. No questions yet!”

The journalists quietened down one by one, making Erin wonder if, apart from her diamond skin, Jennifer had some extra power which gave her a sort of crowd control, or if this was just her experience; she filed this away for later and focused on the PA again, the younger woman clearing her throat before she continued.

“All four are mutants”, she repeated, “and all four worked together to save New York city not too long ago, against an army of ghosts called up by one person. A regular human, I might add, there was no sign whatsoever that Rowan North possessed any sort of power until he died and became a ghost himself. And the Ghostbusters used their powers to save us all, as I’m sure you all remember.”

At this, the audience murmured in agreement, to the relief of the women, as they figured that no outright protest was a good sign; Jennifer gave a short smile, then turned a bit to look at Holtzmann, gesturing at her to make sure everyone knew whom she was talking about.

“The equipment used for this gigantic bust was built by Dr Jillian Holtzmann, as most of you know”, she reminded them of this not unimportant detail, “just like the others, she’s a mutant. And simply for this, for being different, for skills she was born with, she was experimented on and hurt with inhumane experiments. Dr Holtzmann?”

Holtzmann took in a deep breath, then stepped forward, Jennifer giving her a reassuring smile; the engineer still felt nervous, but let her claws slide out, making sure to do so slowly, not wanting to freak people out more than necessary.

“This was done to her by the army of the United States”, Jennifer said, going for the blunt statement again, audible gasps coming up from the audience, “every single bone in her body was coated with this metal, against her will, when she was just a teenager, not even in her twenties yet. Do you want to be on the same side as the people who would do something like this to an innocent human being? A young girl?”

At this, the murmurs started again, some of them sounding angry, while several people took pictures of Holtzmann just standing there, looking uncomfortable with her claws out; then, one journalist called out “does that hurt?”, and the engineer answered before she could stop herself, ignoring the look Jennifer shot her.

“It’s blades which have to go through my arms to come out there”, she said, unable to keep a bit of snark out of her voice, “it certainly isn’t pleasant.”

To her amazement, several people laughed at this, and at the look Jennifer shot her in another try to shut her up; clearing her throat, Jennifer gained the audience’s attention again, just opening her mouth to continue when another voice came up, a cold and angry one, hateful enough to make her fall silent.

“That is all very touching”, the speaker, an unremarkable man who held neither a camera, nor a notepad, called out, “but why don’t you tell them what Dr Gilbert did? How she almost killed her girlfriend here, how she would have killed her if it hadn’t been for Dr Holtzmann’s healing?”

“You weren’t there”, Abby called out, angered by his behaviour and by how his words were affecting Erin, the physicist having paled visibly, “so be quiet!”

“Oh”, the man replied, and Abby’s eyes went wide when he rose from the ground, floating up with no apparent effort, “but I was.”

He brought both hands up, and the people in front of him screamed as they were flung aside, his powers tossing them away like ragdolls and cutting a path through them to the stage; Holtzmann grit her teeth as she realized who this was, and at the same second, Erin came to the same realization, paling even further, until Patty feared she might faint and moved closer to her, ready to catch her.

“You”, Holtzmann snarled, taking a step forward, quite glad now that she had put on her gloves for the press conference, not even noticing that several people were taking pictures and had begun to film, “what do you want?”

“What’s mine”, he snarled in response, and Erin found herself wondering if the man whose body had been possessed was screaming inside his own mind, like she had been when it had been done to her, “her power. It’s wasted on her, she never uses all of it, she doesn’t dare.”

He floated up a few inches higher, his eyes fixed on Erin now – before they rolled back in his head as the ghost left the body it had possessed, and at the same second, Holtzmann pushed the buttons built into her gloves, proton streams crackling as they coated her claws.

She was amazed to notice that several people gasped in amazement, despite the danger; the ghost just laughed, not all too impressed, and shot forward, ready to possess Erin again, clearly planning to simply fly over the engineer and stay safely out of reach.

Holtzmann had a second to ask herself what she should do to stop the ghost from possessing Erin again – and then she felt strong hands grab her, hook into her belt, Jane urgently saying “get him!” right behind her before she practically threw her upwards, displaying her far above average strength, the engineer yelping in surprise when her feet left the ground.

From the corner of her eye, she saw how Erin raised her hand, not to ward off the ghost as she had thought at first, but to help her along, make use of her momentum, speeding her up and keeping her stable, in an impressive display of her powers.

The ghost was too fast at this point to correct the course, and Holtzmann could see its eyes go wide – before she brought up her claws and the apparition flew right into them, howling in pain when it got apart, the audience cheering at the visible damage done.

Gritting her teeth, Holtzmann brought her claws down in a final harsh cutting motion, and that did the last bit of damage needed – the ghost shrieked in pain before it exploded, ectoplasm raining down onto the audience and the Ghostbusters, and Erin just sighed when a quick look showed her that most of the slime had landed on her.

“Of course”, she said, the people falling silent while Holtzmann fell back down to the stage, landing with an audible thump, “it’s me. Again. This stuff really is after me personally.”

Holtzmann was unable to hold back a grin, while Erin just sighed again and Abby and Patty snickered… and then, the audience started cheering once more, Jennifer smiling to herself as she realized that the problem had pretty much just solved itself, all thanks to an overeager ghost who hadn’t truly known whom it had been going up against.


	19. Chapter 19

“Congratulations”, Jennifer dryly said an hour later, as they all sat in the firehouse, the PA scrolling through various social media feeds on her laptop, “your little display of heroics went over well, Dr Holtzmann. There’s still a few people who complain that you’re mutants, but most voices are positive.”

“The negative ones are hopefully gonna shut up again after a while, too”, Holtzmann said, making the others nod; Jennifer gave her a brief smile, then let her know that this was very likely to happen.

“The public tends to have a short memory about such things”, she told the group, closing the pages she had been browsing, “the next big thing will come around, and no one will be bothered anymore by mutant Ghostbusters. Especially since all of you have used your powers solely for good.”

“Not quite”, Erin mumbled, thinking back to the moment she had killed the general; Holtzmann reached over to grasp her hand, and the physicist gave her a brief look, grateful for the silent support, her gaze moving to Jennifer again when the PA shrugged.

“Forgive me for being blunt, Dr Gilbert”, she then said, “but killing a general who was head of the sort of experiments performed on both Dr Holtzmann and Jane does count as good in my book.”

Erin just shrugged, clearly not accepting this so fast, but not wanting to start a discussion about it, either; Holtzmann gave her hand another squeeze and then just kept holding on to her, not pulling back, Jennifer watching this little interaction for another moment before she focused on the topic at hand again.

“I suggest you lay low for a while, as much as it is possible”, she said, earning another round of nods, “I’m very aware that Ghostbuster isn’t a job which is very suited for being discreet, but perhaps no all too flashy use of your powers. Jane? Will you be joining the team?”

“I’m a bit young I think”, Jane gave back, Erin nodding empathically; Holtzmann cleared her throat, making them all look at her, and she shrugged, giving the teenager a smile before she spoke up.

“I thought about that, you know”, she let Jane know, earning a curious look, “you have a talent for building things, that showed when you helped me in the lab. And you’re smart, so… I thought that maybe, Dr Gorin might mentor you, like she mentored me. That way you’ll get to use your talents, be around other people your age…”

“I like that idea”, Jane said at once, making the engineer smile, “I like what you do, I liked helping you. So if Dr Gorin wants to do that…”

“Oh, I bet she will”, Holtzmann gave back, “I’ll call her when we’re done here, alright?”

Jane smiled and nodded, and Jennifer gave a brief smile, too, glad that this had been settled so quickly – she hadn’t seen much of Jane, but could tell that the teenager had a temper, and figured that being mentored by someone like Dr Gorin would help with keeping said temper in check, just like it had helped Holtzmann.

“Alright then”, she said, making them look at her again, “now that this all has been settled, I guess we’re done here for now. Thank you for your time.”

“Thank you for helping us”, Abby replied, the PA shrugging it off and telling her not to mention it; she let them know they could call her whenever they needed something, then took her leave, Holtzmann digging out her phone the moment Jennifer was gone to call Dr Gorin.

As she had expected, her former mentor was more than willing to take this role Jane, too, and promised Holtzmann that she would take care of everything; and once this had been settled and Holtzmann told Jane that it would happen, the teenager squealed and threw both arms around her in a tight hug, the engineer smiling as she returned the embrace, suddenly just sure that everything would work out just fine.

* * *

Despite Jane’s joy and the way the other Ghostbusters had been happy for her, Holtzmann could easily tell that Erin was still burdened by what had happened; and so, it didn’t surprise her that the physicist brought it up when they were alone in their upstairs bedroom, just the two of them, with no one else around to hear what she had to say.

“You know”, she said as she sat on the edge of the bed, after she had changed into her pyjama, “after the military got their hands on you again and we got you back, when you said you were afraid I wouldn’t want you anymore after… what you did while you were under their control… I couldn’t quite get why you’d feel this way. But I do now.”

Immediately, Holtzmann sat down next to her and grasped her hand, but didn’t say anything, sensing Erin had more to say; and after a few controlled breaths, the physicist did so, staring down at Holtzmann’s hand holding hers as she spoke.

“I killed someone”, she said, swallowing heavily, “and I… I can’t forget how he looked at me, the second before he died. But… what is even worse… is what I did to you.”

She took in another deep breath, then looked at Holtzmann, her eyes glistening suspiciously, but the tears didn’t fall, not yet, even though Holtzmann could tell how hard Erin was fighting to hold them back.

“I hurt you”, she said, the engineer holding back the urge to interrupt her and tell her it hadn’t been her fault, “what that ghost said today was true, if it hadn’t been for your healing, I would have killed you. And every time I close my eyes, I see that, I see him and then I see you, how bits and pieces of you just were… gone… and the bones showing and… Holtz I’m sorry…”

She lost the fight against her tears at this point, and a soft sob escaped her; and immediately, Holtzmann wrapped both arms around her and held her close, rubbing her back as she soothingly spoke into her ear, reassured her that it hadn’t been her fault, that it had been the ghost using her power and that she didn’t blame her.

“And it will get better”, she promised, rubbing soothing circles on the other woman’s back, Erin giving her a doubtful look, “I know it’s hard, and that it hurts, but it will get better, I promise. And I’ll be there with you every step of the way, I promise. I love you.”

“I love you too”, Erin whispered, clinging to her now and burying her face in the engineer’s shoulder, “and thank you for… forgiving me so easily, I don’t know what I would have done if you had blamed me…”

“There is nothing you have to be forgiven for”, Holtzmann reassured her, still holding her close; Erin just clung to her in response, and the engineer tried her best to give her the comfort she so obviously needed.

She knew what Erin felt, and knew that it wouldn’t be easy, for a while; there would be nightmares, she knew, and moments when the guilt would seem too heavy to carry for just another second… but she also knew that it would get better, and that she would be there for Erin whenever the physicist would need her to.

It would be difficult, she knew, but she also knew that they had each other, and that they could handle it all as long as they were together.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So! It is done :) Thank you all for reading :) And please stay tuned for my next one ;D


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